Saturday 24 October 2009

Fish On Friday

In Ireland Friday was traditionally a day when only fish was on the menu! My Paternal Grandmother lived with us and she was an extremely religious woman (a saint even) - but eating meat on Friday was absolutely out of the question. It's a religious tradition - Catholic (Christian, I am not sure?) but conveniently the "Fish Man" duly delivered fish to our door anyway.
Today, Ireland is Catholic only in name but surprisingly the tradition still remains. The Fish and Chip shop or "Chipper" is now an institution here, at least 90% are owned by Italians who arrived here from an area north of Napoli, south of Roma - but that's another story! Still, go into any Chipper on a Friday and fish will be the most popular order.
But today, I discovered that there is an alternative to smoked cod in batter! Around the corner from where I live Kish Fish sell an amazing variety of fresh fish. My Granny would be proud!

3 comments:

Valerie said...

No fish on Friday was a Catholic tradition, now dropped. My better half is a Catholic so for a long time fish was avoided on Fridays. It doesn't matter when we have it now. The picture of the fish stall was very good, made my mouth water since fish is one of my favourite foods. Thanks for your nice comment on my picture blog.

Zuzana said...

Very interesting! I love the picture, there is nothing like fresh fish.;)

valeria said...

Very interesting! So italians sell fish and chips there...how funny. Ciao and thankyou for visiting my blog and your ever kind comments!