WEST WARWICK — The aroma of fried fish and chips is a familiar scent in parish kitchens at this time of the year, and with meatless meals in full swing around the diocese, opportunities abound for both the common and non-traditional Lenten dining experience.
For the more traditional Lenten cuisine, parishioners and members of the community each Friday fill the dining hall and call in pick up orders from the parish kitchen of St. Anthony Church in West Warwick.
The parish offers the Friday meals year round, but during Lent the kitchen gets a lot busier said volunteer Maureen Addams, who added that from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Ash Wednesday the parish made $1,021 through the sale of seafood.
Parishioner and volunteer Joanne Terranova said that the fish fry gets a great response from the community.
“We see a lot of new faces every week,” she said. “If it wasn’t for them we could never do it. It’s a good income for the church. It’s one of the best money makers.”
With a smile, Terranova shared that some people consider St. Anthony’s kitchen to have the best fish in Rhode Island. The kitchen also offers stuffed quahogs, chowder, baked and fried fish and cebolada, a Portuguese dish with boiled potatoes and onions.
Parishioners Charlotte Correia and Barbara Zukowski, who have have been visiting the local parish kitchen since it began hosting it’s Friday Fish Fry around eight years ago, enjoy the traditional fish and fries plate served at St. Anthony’s.
“They give you a lot of food,” Zukowski said. “There are a lot of fish and chips places around, but I come here.”
Many patrons will come in and ask Terranova for instructions on how to make the parish favorites, but she is the only one in the kitchen with the recipes and prefers keeping the delicacies she creates a mystery.
“It’s a secret,” she said. “They ask, but I wont tell them.” Although, if her pastor, Father Victor Silva, were to request the recipe, Terranova said with a laugh, that she would tell him a thoughtful “maybe.”
For those who live in the Ocean State—where great seafood is readily available — it may be especially difficult to treat eating fish on Fridays as a sacrifice, explains Father Henry Zinno. A skilled chef, the pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Bristol not only enjoys cooking, but also sharing his expertise in the kitchen with parishioners who routinely bid for the culinary lessons he offers in an annual fundraiser for the parish.
“It is difficult for us seafood lovers to see a fish dinner of any sorts as a fasting meal,” he says. “It is especially difficult for those of us of Italian or Portuguese descent. I always make an effort to likewise do some other sort of fasting weekly during Lent to make up for my love of fish.”
Eating fish on Fridays during Lent has been the Christian practice since the earliest times of the church. Along with prayer, penance, good works and sacrifice, meatless Fridays are a way for Catholics to recognize that Friday is a solemn day in the church, the day Jesus was crucified and died, Father Zinno explained.
According to a survey conducted by the nonprofit Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which is affiliated with Georgetown University and designed to help educate the faithful about church teaching, 60 percent of Catholics, regardless of Mass attendance, give up meat on Fridays during Lent.
“I do see many people, not only Catholics, who participate in meatless Fridays,” Father Zinno said. “Whether it is purely from traditional motives or from sacrificial motives, I am not sure.”
In a Q and A on Lenten Practices, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops offered helpful clarification on what is considered “meat,” and acceptable to eat on Fridays in Lent.
“Abstinence laws consider that meat comes only from animals such as chickens, cows, sheep or pigs — all of which live on land. Birds are also considered meat. Abstinence does not include meat juices and liquid foods made from meat. Fish are a different category of animal. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, (cold-blooded animals) and shellfish are permitted.”
Along with the typical fish and chips, clam cakes and seafood chowder choices that most are familiar with, there are other more exotic options for Lenten meals.
According to Archbishop of New Orleans Gregory M. Aymond, it is even acceptable to consume alligator on Fridays during Lent. The archbishop shared that alligator is important to the state of Louisiana and considered seafood.
“Concerning the question if alligator is acceptable to eat during the Lenten season...yes, the alligator is considered in the fish family,” the archbishop wrote in a 2010 letter provided Tuesday to Rhode Island Catholic by the New Orleans Archdiocese.
Locally, Gavin’s Pub and Restaurant on the waterfront in Providence offers the alligator menu option year-round. The Louisiana Alligator Toes appetizer is crusted with white cornmeal, chipotle salt, and a spicy remoulade, serving as an exotic Lenten choice for patrons.
As a twist on the typical chicken fingers, Gavin’s went the extra step with the reptilian addition to their upscale pub menu, said the restaurant’s manager Evan Hatch.
“We went with the complete extreme,” he said. “I think it’s a great choice. A lot of people come in and they’re scared. We tell them, ‘It’s good — It’s not going to bite you!’ The trick is getting them to try it and getting them over the fearful first bite.”
Father Henry Zinno, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Bristol, shares his
favorite Lenten meal:
“My favorite Lenten meal is Sole Florentine. It is so easy to prepare: just one box of frozen spinach defrosted, sauteed with olive oil, garlic, black olives, red pepper, salt and pepper.
You drain the spinach, saving the liquid to use for the rice you serve with this meal. Mix the sauteed spinach with some Ricotta and Parmigiano Reggiano and wrap each piece of Sole around a huge spoonful of the stuffing.
Bake in a buttered baking dish with the sole (turned so the folded side is down) topped with seasoned breadcrumbs and butter, at 375 degrees covered for about 35 minutes, then uncovered for another 10-15 minutes.
This is great because you can prepare it ahead of time and stick it in the oven just before the Stations of the Cross begins and then come back and uncover it when finished with the Stations. It’s great with a rice dish using the spinach juice, vegetable stock, and some sliced vegetables that you sauté before you cook the rice.”
