I go back and forth on fish fries most of the time. There's something clearly askew when you have fried fish, macaroni and cheese, pepperoni pizza, green beans, mashed potatoes, piled high on a plate in order to say "I'm dong my penance."
But at the same time...that's an undeniably *Catholic* approach to these things (Mardi Gras...). Dunno. I'll keep waffling I suppose.
You don't HAVE TO eat that much, probably many should be pulled back away from the table for their own good.
I'm not a fan of All-You-Can Eat, because there are some that severely abuse the concept and take away from charity, which is where the profits from all of the Fish Fry's I know go to.
I get the dilemma, I also go back and forth. Where I have landed this year is that when we're so lacking real friendship and communion I'd rather people be tempted to over-indulgence than lonely.
Yeah, there's definitely a bit of cognitive dissonance to it that gives me pause. On one hand, finding joy and community amid penance is as Catholic as it gets, and fish fries form most of the annual income for the Knights of Columbus councils who run them, which is crucial to a lot of the good work they do year-round.
But on the other hand, having a ton of savory food and four beers feels exceptionally gluttonous, especially when people are likely doing Stations of the Cross next door. I feel like St Augustine's eyes would bulge from his head if he saw a modern Fish Fry, and not in a good way.
I wonder if there's a middle road where you make a simpler meal without alcohol that costs less to run and is more penitential but still offers community and fundraising opportunities, and maybe the off-the-chain fish fries are better held over the summer or during Easter when the fast is completed.
If abstinence from meat was required year round (or even if it wasn't, it would be a nice little nudge as a suggestion of perhaps a thing one could do), I think it would be great if parishes did monthly fish fries. There are non-Catholic groups in my region where even in the middle of the summer, the VFW or whatever is hosting a fish fry, or people go out for fish on Fridays regardless of their particular religion.
I suppose there is an element of coordinating all the setup and a more committed base of volunteers, but I think it could be doable. (By "more committed," I just mean that there's a difference between coming every Friday for five or six weeks, or being available over the longer span of a year, without an obvious end date. But beyond a core team, I suppose, different parish groups could even "host" and take on the bulk of "day-of" tasks.)
(I should stop offering suggestions for how to do it, because if I go on much longer someone's going to tell me to do it!)
Totally agreed - and that last comment is the real kicker 😅 I have a priest friend who always turns it around on parishioners who complain that SOMEONE has to do something about something else
Obviously it doesn't have to be this way, but I do appreciate that if I'm paying $15 a plate, there is enough food that one plate can feed three of my little kids. We almost never eat out, but we do try to support our local fish fries once or twice during Lent. But for a family of nine, it can get really costly really quick!
(My teenagers, alas, polish off their own plate, and everybody else's leftovers, and then ask to buy an extra side of haluski.)
As a non-Catholic, the local KoC fish fry was my first true introduction to Catholicism. My Midwestern town was mostly Apostolic, so alcohol consumption was frowned upon; even the local Walmart couldn't sell booze.
Going to my first fish fry, my friend's father paid for all of us, and 5 minutes later arrived at our table with 2 pitchers of beer. You can imagine my surprise, especially at a church function.
We would sit for hours and chat with people who lived all around the town. Whenever a fresh round of fried fish emerged from the kitchen, my friend's father would yell out, "Fresh drop, fresh drop!!"
I'll be working my KoC Council's fish fry this evening. I always run the fryers for the second shift and, because I'm Treasurer, I get to skip out on the cleaning as I prepare the deposit.
Far too many look at our suggested donation cost and don't realize that we actually make very little profit to give back to the Church. Post-covid the ingredient cost has skyrocketed and we try to keep the suggested requests down to stay competitive against, not just the local restaurants, but the other Councils in our city. We also donate meals for all of the sisters in two of the convents in our area, all of the priests who come in, seminarians, the firefighters in our local station, and the Candidates/Catechumens in our OCIA class.
Really, the main reasons we put on our fish fry every year is for the comradery amongst our volunteers, the communal aspect of having a meal with your fellow parishioner and all those who join us, and it gives the youth another chance to cultivate charity in their lives through volunteering during Lent.
I know we'll never be able to compete, in terms of attendance or profit, against the other Parishes in our Diocese. We are landlocked in a poorer area of town, we have facilities that can't be expanded at our hall to accommodate larger crowds, and our Parish property doesn't have facilities for an event this size. But we can do everything in our power to make it a communal event and to make other goals, like having far better quality of food than the larger Parishes have by hand-battering, cutting, baking, and frying everything we can (take THAT frozen patty Parishes, you know who you are!).
I absolutely refuse to attend any "frozen patty parish" fries. Some years back I went around to all the fries in the area where I'd recently moved and quickly learned where the good ones were. I now have a short list that I frequent every year. Sadly my own parish doesn't have one, but there's several others within a short drive.
I love the picture that includes a young girl in the kitchen- including children and families in volunteer opportunities is so key to building community and so many times younger kids are considered a "bother" and not included. But they are eager to help, it still feels novel to them and with a little ingenuity they can really contribute.
I rarely spend 20 or 30 dollars on dinner for myself at a restaurant, when I can get the same stuff at the grocery store for 1/3 the price, but I'm happy to throw down that money at a good parish fish fry. It supports the parish, it brings back happy memories of going to fish fries with my family growing up, and it's a nice fellowship opportunity with other Catholics. Even if you get food "to go" you usually get to meet and greet people.
Occasionally I run into priests or parishes who really object to fish fries because they think it's against the spirit of Lent. That always lets me know that I'm probably not going to be comfortable at that parish. I'm not doing my Lent penance in front of everybody, penance is supposed to be private anyway, so lay off judging my fish fry.
Also I highly recommend the video "Fish Fry" by the comedian "Pittsburgh Dad" on Youtube. I watch it every year and ROFLOL all over again.
I have the weirdest annual fish fry in my rural hometown. They serve nearly 1000 dinners (town population is maybe a few hundred). You have to get up to let someone else eat as soon as you’re finished. That’s normal, here’s the weird part: we have it St. Patrick’s Day weekend. There’s a 75+ year old bachelor man, with a nickname I will not disclose because it’s just too much, who selects a 21+ year old to be the queen for the weekend. Usually this is a young girl who frequents the local pub. She is dawned “Queen” and has to Kiss the old bachelor in front of everyone at the fish fry and then they parade around the gym together as people cheer. Much alcohol involved. I was queen #33 years ago. They’re now well over 40 queens and 40 years. A couple years there were twins.
Great article, Jack!
Elite title and great article.
Thanks, Jack, I'm not going to be able to keep a straight face the next time we sing a particular hymn. Examine your conscience. 🧐
O cod beyond all praising
We're serving you today
With fries and slaws amazing
And all of it home-made
For we can only wonder
At every fish God sends:
Should this one be deep fried?
Or baked with odds and ends?
We praise our loving Father
We praise His only Son
We praise the Holy Spirit
Almighty Three in One.
this is incredible
well that's gonna be stuck in my head the rest of the day!
Oh my gosh, Bridget Spitznagel. You didn't just do that.
Utterly hilarious!
Especially given that I want that song, especially its middle verse, sung at my funeral.
Sorry, it was just to good of a headline not to use...
Great article! Our fish fry “feeds” Stations of the Cross at 6:30 PM
I go back and forth on fish fries most of the time. There's something clearly askew when you have fried fish, macaroni and cheese, pepperoni pizza, green beans, mashed potatoes, piled high on a plate in order to say "I'm dong my penance."
But at the same time...that's an undeniably *Catholic* approach to these things (Mardi Gras...). Dunno. I'll keep waffling I suppose.
Fasting vs Abstinence
You don't HAVE TO eat that much, probably many should be pulled back away from the table for their own good.
I'm not a fan of All-You-Can Eat, because there are some that severely abuse the concept and take away from charity, which is where the profits from all of the Fish Fry's I know go to.
WAFFLES? In this season???
I get the dilemma, I also go back and forth. Where I have landed this year is that when we're so lacking real friendship and communion I'd rather people be tempted to over-indulgence than lonely.
I'd make them a deal, stick your phone in this box for the duration and you can eat whatever you want
Yeah, there's definitely a bit of cognitive dissonance to it that gives me pause. On one hand, finding joy and community amid penance is as Catholic as it gets, and fish fries form most of the annual income for the Knights of Columbus councils who run them, which is crucial to a lot of the good work they do year-round.
But on the other hand, having a ton of savory food and four beers feels exceptionally gluttonous, especially when people are likely doing Stations of the Cross next door. I feel like St Augustine's eyes would bulge from his head if he saw a modern Fish Fry, and not in a good way.
I wonder if there's a middle road where you make a simpler meal without alcohol that costs less to run and is more penitential but still offers community and fundraising opportunities, and maybe the off-the-chain fish fries are better held over the summer or during Easter when the fast is completed.
If abstinence from meat was required year round (or even if it wasn't, it would be a nice little nudge as a suggestion of perhaps a thing one could do), I think it would be great if parishes did monthly fish fries. There are non-Catholic groups in my region where even in the middle of the summer, the VFW or whatever is hosting a fish fry, or people go out for fish on Fridays regardless of their particular religion.
I suppose there is an element of coordinating all the setup and a more committed base of volunteers, but I think it could be doable. (By "more committed," I just mean that there's a difference between coming every Friday for five or six weeks, or being available over the longer span of a year, without an obvious end date. But beyond a core team, I suppose, different parish groups could even "host" and take on the bulk of "day-of" tasks.)
(I should stop offering suggestions for how to do it, because if I go on much longer someone's going to tell me to do it!)
Totally agreed - and that last comment is the real kicker 😅 I have a priest friend who always turns it around on parishioners who complain that SOMEONE has to do something about something else
Obviously it doesn't have to be this way, but I do appreciate that if I'm paying $15 a plate, there is enough food that one plate can feed three of my little kids. We almost never eat out, but we do try to support our local fish fries once or twice during Lent. But for a family of nine, it can get really costly really quick!
(My teenagers, alas, polish off their own plate, and everybody else's leftovers, and then ask to buy an extra side of haluski.)
As a non-Catholic, the local KoC fish fry was my first true introduction to Catholicism. My Midwestern town was mostly Apostolic, so alcohol consumption was frowned upon; even the local Walmart couldn't sell booze.
Going to my first fish fry, my friend's father paid for all of us, and 5 minutes later arrived at our table with 2 pitchers of beer. You can imagine my surprise, especially at a church function.
We would sit for hours and chat with people who lived all around the town. Whenever a fresh round of fried fish emerged from the kitchen, my friend's father would yell out, "Fresh drop, fresh drop!!"
Now I am the one yelling at the local fish fry.
I'll be working my KoC Council's fish fry this evening. I always run the fryers for the second shift and, because I'm Treasurer, I get to skip out on the cleaning as I prepare the deposit.
Far too many look at our suggested donation cost and don't realize that we actually make very little profit to give back to the Church. Post-covid the ingredient cost has skyrocketed and we try to keep the suggested requests down to stay competitive against, not just the local restaurants, but the other Councils in our city. We also donate meals for all of the sisters in two of the convents in our area, all of the priests who come in, seminarians, the firefighters in our local station, and the Candidates/Catechumens in our OCIA class.
Really, the main reasons we put on our fish fry every year is for the comradery amongst our volunteers, the communal aspect of having a meal with your fellow parishioner and all those who join us, and it gives the youth another chance to cultivate charity in their lives through volunteering during Lent.
I know we'll never be able to compete, in terms of attendance or profit, against the other Parishes in our Diocese. We are landlocked in a poorer area of town, we have facilities that can't be expanded at our hall to accommodate larger crowds, and our Parish property doesn't have facilities for an event this size. But we can do everything in our power to make it a communal event and to make other goals, like having far better quality of food than the larger Parishes have by hand-battering, cutting, baking, and frying everything we can (take THAT frozen patty Parishes, you know who you are!).
6044 South St. - Lincoln.
I absolutely refuse to attend any "frozen patty parish" fries. Some years back I went around to all the fries in the area where I'd recently moved and quickly learned where the good ones were. I now have a short list that I frequent every year. Sadly my own parish doesn't have one, but there's several others within a short drive.
Fr Buting! I worked at summer camp with him
I love the picture that includes a young girl in the kitchen- including children and families in volunteer opportunities is so key to building community and so many times younger kids are considered a "bother" and not included. But they are eager to help, it still feels novel to them and with a little ingenuity they can really contribute.
Absolute banger of a headline.
I rarely spend 20 or 30 dollars on dinner for myself at a restaurant, when I can get the same stuff at the grocery store for 1/3 the price, but I'm happy to throw down that money at a good parish fish fry. It supports the parish, it brings back happy memories of going to fish fries with my family growing up, and it's a nice fellowship opportunity with other Catholics. Even if you get food "to go" you usually get to meet and greet people.
Occasionally I run into priests or parishes who really object to fish fries because they think it's against the spirit of Lent. That always lets me know that I'm probably not going to be comfortable at that parish. I'm not doing my Lent penance in front of everybody, penance is supposed to be private anyway, so lay off judging my fish fry.
Also I highly recommend the video "Fish Fry" by the comedian "Pittsburgh Dad" on Youtube. I watch it every year and ROFLOL all over again.
I have the weirdest annual fish fry in my rural hometown. They serve nearly 1000 dinners (town population is maybe a few hundred). You have to get up to let someone else eat as soon as you’re finished. That’s normal, here’s the weird part: we have it St. Patrick’s Day weekend. There’s a 75+ year old bachelor man, with a nickname I will not disclose because it’s just too much, who selects a 21+ year old to be the queen for the weekend. Usually this is a young girl who frequents the local pub. She is dawned “Queen” and has to Kiss the old bachelor in front of everyone at the fish fry and then they parade around the gym together as people cheer. Much alcohol involved. I was queen #33 years ago. They’re now well over 40 queens and 40 years. A couple years there were twins.