@chai2,
It's a put down of his mate in the watering hole. That's why his mate doesn't get it. It means have you never had it with an English Rose who is eating a bag of fish and chips and talking to her Mum on the phone. It's incredible alright. Especially if she skens a bit and the conversation is utter drivel. She needs only give you a condescending smirk at some point and that's it.
It was a crispy apple in the olde days and she might be watching two doves in the tree in the shade of which the event is taking place and wondering about the role of money in evolution which she had been learning about in English Literature.
It means his mate has been reading too many "empathy" manuals.