While shaving before not heading out to church this Good Friday morning I heard an interview on CBC Radio with the cheerful owner of one of the outlets of Ches's Famous Fish and Chips in St. John's Newfoundland. I enjoyed fish and chips at the original location, decades ago. Usually on Good Friday they feed the five thousand, or at least a multitude of people for whom this is an essential aspect of the day, whether they are observant Christians or not. Because of COVID-19 it is phone orders and take-away only, and their busiest day of the year will be down by 90%.
photo: Stan Collins
It is has been a long-standing practice of Roman Catholics to abstain or fast from red meat on all Fridays, with fish as a substitute. Pope Paul VI loosened the rules in the 1960's so this tradition is no longer observed in the way it once was. In earlier centuries herring was the fish of choice because it was easily preserved but it was replaced by cod as the favourite because it was abundant and readily salted for transport by European fleets fishing off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
There is still a custom in some Newfoundland communities to offer free fish for the taker on Good Friday, a lovely act of generosity. When we were on Change Islands, Newfoundland, last September it was a big deal that the fish plant was open to process cod for even a brief time.
The reason I'm writing about this in my Groundling blog is because of fish, and its increasing scarcity around the world. Cod was once considered inexhaustible but the collapse of the Newfoundland stocks due to over-fishing made it a rare treat. During the pandemic the demand for fish has dropped dramatically, which is hard on those who fish for a living. Will it mean a resurgence in some species because they are allowed to rebound? Who knows.
Now we probably all have a hankering for fish and chips, but where to find it?...
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