March 17, 2017 (Friday)
My favorite buffet restaurant always serves fish on Friday. It’s not alone in this. Millions of restaurants in our country and around the world do the same. Friday is “fish day.”
The custom goes back to religion, Catholicism, Lent and Good Friday, but it has extended itself so widely that people the world over choose fish on Friday simply because it’s Friday.
Of course, many people have fish on their plates on all the other days of the week. Some probably have it every day.
When I was a little kid, I remember we went to a fish market to buy our fish. My childhood memories include great big monster fish sitting in ice chunks in a cold storage display case.
Fish Market
The specialty stores gave way eventually to the big supermarkets. The first supermarket I remember from my growing up days in Houston was Weingartens. Everyone was amazed at being able to pick out your own groceries, place them in a cart and watch as the cashier tallied the total cost of all the items on a big cash register. I never worked at Weingartens, but I worked at several independent grocery stores and several Henke and Pillot supermarkets, the last job being at a now extinct store the summer after college graduation. I’m pretty sure I got fired from that job because my manager hated college graduates (and preachers). Just saying. Anyway, it was my last fling in the produce markets of grocery stores. After that, it was church work, with a few exceptions, as I continued my education and worked at secular jobs to pay the bills.
Getting back to fish in the stores. Locally, here in Rockport, one can go down to the docks and meet the shrimp boats as they come into port and buy directly from the fresh catch. If we prefer, we can go to one of the “fish houses,” where the fish, shrimp and oysters are processed, or to a local supermarket, like H.E.B., where an entire section of the store is set aside for such. Or, as many people do, you can get yourself some fishing gear and catch your own.
Much of the fish we bring home is pre-processed, packaged and frozen. It’s all good. Especially if you know how to cook it. Lonnie Wright told me years ago that the trick is in not overcooking. When he cooked it, it was delicious. And the shrimp salad that his wife, Mary, made was the talk of the county. So very good. Delicious!
Make somebody happy today–eat something from the ocean or the bays.