Play it at breakfast, lunch or tea, the song Fish and Chips is almost as famous in Aotearoa as the dish itself. So why is the woman who wrote it virtually unknown? Originally published by The Spinoff . When you see Claudia Mushin zooming through the streets of Wellington ’s Miramar in her electric wheelchair, you might hear a familiar chorus sung in her wake: “ fish and chips make me want to lick my lips.
” The ditty has been repeated thousands of times across New Zealand schools since the 1990s, and it’s made Mushin famous enough in her Miramar neighbourhood that residents who spot her whizzing by can’t help but burst into song. Hum the tune, and most New Zealanders 40 and under should be able to sing the lyrics back to you — it’s funny how a few rhymes you learn in primary school can stick with you forever. Fish and Chips , born from the mumblings of Mushin’s son, Steve, was a track on the third collection of Kiwi Kidsongs , a series of Ministry of Education albums that were sent out on cassette tape, then CD, to every New Zealand school across the motu from 1990 to 2010.
Finding Claudia Mushin.