Fish flake fun

From the book Advanced in Food Research by C. O. Chichester:-

Alginates are useful polysaccharides extracted from, among other sources, seaweed. I don't know if this technique is still used, but at one time fish fillets may have looked okay, but were not necessarily what they seemed.

As the book says, the flake-like appearance of whole fish can be simulated using fish mince and alginates. Yet consider the traditional fish and chip shop - those places health fascists want to go out of business. There you see real fish being dipped in batter before frying. What you see is what you get.