Christmas Eve: The Feast of the Seven Fishes

Mountain Cat said:
I have to admit, my parents were prone to follow the letter of the law rather than the spirit, during Lent and on Christmas Eve. I knew Lent was about "giving up" things - but their Lenten Friday dishes (we were raised Catholic, and Mother always was Catholic and I grew up when the restrictions on meat were still in force) dishes were some of the tastiest meals of the week. Some would truly be vegetarian - which were always excellent, things centered around eggplant and such -- very awesome. The rest would be -- seafood! And, good quality seafood, sometimes inexpensive because then we lived in New York City or nearby, which is coastal - but I never felt like I was giving anything up.

I recall going out on one Friday with them in Lent and ordering ravioli - and feeling horridly guilty of something when the dish turned up to be stuffed with meat rather than simply cheese... As a kid, I guess I assumed that EVERYone followed these restrictions! (Parents said: "waste not, want not" or words to that effect, but I still felt guilty.)

Christmas Eve never felt like we were supposed to be giving anything up. It was another occasion to celebrate with family and/or friends. Yes, you didn't eat land animals or poultry, but you did enjoy seafood - even if during my formative years it wasn't Seven of them.
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I understand what you mean by 'I've never had the feeling of having to give up something'. It is more a symbolic thing now, even if I tend not to exceed with food, or fish like in this case - which by the way is not even so cheaply.

Mine is a purely personal matter that regards respect for the spiritual and religious tradition, but also a form of morigeration even towards those who really have nothing to eat ever, whether it is meat or fish or vegetables. During the year I help an association for the homeless and for people who are in financial and personal difficulties, cooking for them together with other volunteers. I'm not hypocrite, I don't want to deprive myself of something I am entitled to, but I don't even want to dive into food or waste it, just as I don't blame those who want to eat well and a lot, in the company of family and friends and have fun and enjoy good food, it's a that is also a sacred right and I don't want to deprive myself of that either.

I have never even seen 7 different types of fish in my house, two or three are more than enough for me.
 
When I was in Naples it was a rehydrated salt cod in tomato sauce.

Rich
 
Hi there
I really would like to reply and tell you of the visit to Norway and my experiences of eating it but every time I try to post the proposed text I get a message saying I cannot as my text looks like Spam!!!


Rich
 
ScandiBrit said:
Hi there
I really would like to reply and tell you of the visit to Norway and my experiences of eating it but every time I try to post the proposed text I get a message saying I cannot as my text looks like Spam!!!


Rich
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I've replied re this in the site support section.
 
Today I am making a "Feast of the Seven Fishes" salad. So I can post it in advance on my blog. I will post it here, too, later this week. The fishes I am using:

Mussels, clams (little-neck), calamari, wild-caught shrimp (which I had to go to Connecticut to obtain), sea scallops, salmon, eel. Everything has been cooked except the eel, which had been frozen in my freezer until a couple hours ago.

The salad will contain lettuce, olives, parsley, red bell pepper slivers, celery. I may slice in a bit of onion or leek at the same time. Wish I had capers!
 
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