When I first moved to the mid-Atlantic region, my family from Buffalo came to visit and asked where we might go out to dinner. “It’s Friday,” they said. “Where’s the best fish fry around here?”
“I don’t know,” I said, scratching my head. “I’ve never seen a sign for one.” I called all the seafood and family restaurants in the area, but no one had ever heard of a fish fry, let alone served one. One uppity guy, who probably thought fish was meant only for sushi, said, “Fried fish? Don’t you know how unhealthy that is?” I hung up the phone and gave my relatives the bad news. No fish fries on Friday here. They shook their heads. “What kind of a place is this anyway?” asked my aunt.
Photo by Moxie Gardiner.
That experience led me to the sad (but ultimately false) conclusion that only restaurants in the Western New York area serve fish fries on Friday. When I lived in Buffalo, you couldn’t swing a double-dutch jump rope without hitting a restaurant that served a complete fish fry dinner, not only during Lent, as you might expect, but every Friday throughout the year. I had assumed it was the same everywhere.
It comes with a side of coleslaw and fried apples.
So why, I wondered, did the fish fry become so popular in a town where roast beef on ‘weck, Sahlen’s hot dogs, and our world famous chicken wings, suggest a distinct predilection for meat? The answer is simple: Buffalo is home to lots of Catholics.
For over a thousand years, Christians abstained from eating meat and meat products on Fridays (Good Friday being the day Jesus was crucified) as well as on many religious holidays. So strictly did Catholics adhere to this practice that a desperate McDonald’s franchise owner in Cincinnati is said to have invented the Filet-O-Fish sandwich because he had such a hard time selling burgers on Friday.
Photo by Moxie Gardiner.
According to Brian Fagan, a professor emeritus of archaeology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in his book, Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World, Catholicism’s fish fasting days directly contributed to the growth of the global fishing industry, so much so that after Vatican II loosened the rules, the price of fish, according to one economic analysis, took a nose dive.
Despite my discouraging efforts to find a fish fry in my new hometown, it turns out that there are many places in the US where a fish fry can still be found. They are particularly popular in the Northeast and Midwest, where Catholics of German, Polish, Irish, and Italian descent abound. I’ve since learned that there are fish fries in the South, but they are different. Usually they are social gatherings in large halls where flounder, bream or catfish are battered in corn meal and buttermilk, and served with a side of hush puppies or cheesy grits.
Photo by Moxie Gardiner.
I happened to be in Buffalo recently on a Friday night and was eager to see how the fish fry was faring during the pandemic. I needn’t have worried. I was able to get one in a take-out container, complete with French fries, lemon slices, tartar sauce, macaroni salad, coleslaw, a dinner roll and butter, and in case I was still hungry, a slice of apple pie. In Buffalo, if you don’t serve a beer battered fish that hangs off both sides of the plate and comes with these obligatory side dishes, you will not see a repeat customer.
When I was growing up, the fish fries I remember took advantage of the plentiful perch found in Lake Erie. Today, there is a raging debate about which makes the better fish fry—Atlantic Ocean haddock or cod? Haddock is used in about 90% of all Buffalo fish fries today, according to a recent article in the Buffalo News, but to me the type of fish doesn’t matter. Finding a fish fry at all makes the Buffalonian in me smile.
Do you eat fish on Friday? Do you have a favorite fish fry place? Leave me a comment below!
Moxie Gardiner is a writer and gardener who grew up on the West Side of Buffalo, NY. In a previous life she was a journalist, magazine editor, speech writer, and policy wonk. Back in the day she made three solo parachute jumps, flew in an F-15 fighter jet, and crawled through mud pits at the Jungle Operations Training Course in Panama. She now meditates and practices yoga. She is almost ready to publish her first novel, set in Buffalo.