So this is the week that's probably most challenging.
For one thing, there are tasks involved: we're organizing and cooking and serving a meal instead of just going, paying up and enjoying the food and each other's company.
We're also going to meet a whole bunch of people and enjoy the company of people we don't usually dine with: the guests of the Catholic Worker Storefront.
The Storefront--sometimes referred to by some of the regulars as "the drop"--has been functioning since the mid-80s, as I recall. It's pulled together and supervised by the Catholic Worker Community of Cleveland, based at Whitman House. (For those of us familiar with the 'hood, Whitman House is the large house behind the St Patrick's Club Building at W.38th and Bridge.)
I wish there were time to give everyone a tutorial of sorts about the entire Catholic Worker "thing," but instead I guess we're going to sorta treat this week's foray as a sort of starting point; if we wanna learn more, we'll do that somewhere along the line. For the moment, I guess I'd just say this: Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker movement, was this incredibly humble, strong, wild, wonderful woman who I hold up as a personal hero. I wish like crazy that I'd had the chance to meet her in person....and one of the highest compliments of my life was when a priest-activist from Colombia told someone that I seemed a lot like Dorothy Day, to him....truly a startling and stunning moment, which I'm pretty sure I've never lived up to for more than about ten seconds at a time....still, it was nice to hear, and seems to strike me as a sort of calling....
ANYWAY: At the Storefront, we don't stand across a table at a distance from the 50 or so people who come in to get a hot meal and hang out for the evening. We do serve the meal and do the dishes--but we also fix a plate and sit down at the table with our guests, engaging in whatever conversations we discover, hearing each other's stories and maybe playing a card game or checkers or something.
I think we'll do most of the cooking ahead of time. We're planning on doing meatless rigatoni with lotsa cheese, probably some bread (maybe garlic bread?), maybe some green beans and something for dessert. There was a ton of pop/soda leftover from the NWTBenefit cast party, so we'll probably bring that along.
Anybody wanna cook at my house around 5:30/6:00pm? We'll need to be at the Storefront around 6:30pm, I hope, to have a little "introduction" by Peter Quilligan (I hope), then the doors open from 7pm till 9pm.
I'm hoping that afterward we can come back to my house for some wine, beer, hangout time and maybe play some board games or something fun....whaddaya think?
Lemme know if you're up for this week's fun.....I think it'll give us stuff to think about and talk about for a good long time, my friends. :)
Love ya! Can't wait!
Paula
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Week 2: Sagrada Familia!
WOW--this is one of the most interesting fish frys we've been to, sez me!
It started at 3pm and we didn't really get there till about 6pm (except the fabulous and timely Matthew, who attests that most of the tables were full when he arrived). They actually completely ran out of food around the time of our arrival, of all crazy things--so they ended up closing down early and everyone EXCEPT us (as we were en route to NWT rehearsal) moved into the church space for the Stations of the Cross (which we accidentally interrupted with our usual over-loud laughter a few rooms away....d'oh!)
So we didn't get the full effect of the presumably large, milling and fascinating crowd, since most of us showed up late. I'm sorry to have missed it, and would like to go back again sometime, earlier, just to check out the entire scene of this particular fish fry.
When I came in and sat down by Matt, an older gentleman came over to welcome me--his hospitality and sense of welcome were so dear and engaging that even though I was coming down with the flu and couldn't really eat anything, he convinced me to get one of the pierogi meals--and the one pierogi I did eat was AMAZING! Huge, handmade, beautiful pierogies--woo hoo! (I took the other two to Sarah--she can comment for herself later on how they were cold, during rehearsal, I suppose....)
There were definitely varying views on the menu amongst our group--because this is one of those fish frys where they actually start with pieces of fish, not some pre-cut, pre-shaped, pre-processed stuff, but real fish that they bread themselves on site (and as far as we could tell, made the breading themselves, too). The side dishes COULD include pierogies, but there was also a beautiful hispanic/spanish style rice with beans that looked awesome and COMPLETELY different from anything we usually encounter at any of the Lenten fish frys, so even though I didn't get to eat any of that stuff, I think this one is well worth checking out just for the adventure and homey-ness and hospitality of it all....
Anybody else got any thoughts? (Post your comments below!)
NEXT UP: We cook and share a meal at The Catholic Worker Storefront on Friday, February 22. Details TBA ASAP!
It started at 3pm and we didn't really get there till about 6pm (except the fabulous and timely Matthew, who attests that most of the tables were full when he arrived). They actually completely ran out of food around the time of our arrival, of all crazy things--so they ended up closing down early and everyone EXCEPT us (as we were en route to NWT rehearsal) moved into the church space for the Stations of the Cross (which we accidentally interrupted with our usual over-loud laughter a few rooms away....d'oh!)
So we didn't get the full effect of the presumably large, milling and fascinating crowd, since most of us showed up late. I'm sorry to have missed it, and would like to go back again sometime, earlier, just to check out the entire scene of this particular fish fry.
When I came in and sat down by Matt, an older gentleman came over to welcome me--his hospitality and sense of welcome were so dear and engaging that even though I was coming down with the flu and couldn't really eat anything, he convinced me to get one of the pierogi meals--and the one pierogi I did eat was AMAZING! Huge, handmade, beautiful pierogies--woo hoo! (I took the other two to Sarah--she can comment for herself later on how they were cold, during rehearsal, I suppose....)
There were definitely varying views on the menu amongst our group--because this is one of those fish frys where they actually start with pieces of fish, not some pre-cut, pre-shaped, pre-processed stuff, but real fish that they bread themselves on site (and as far as we could tell, made the breading themselves, too). The side dishes COULD include pierogies, but there was also a beautiful hispanic/spanish style rice with beans that looked awesome and COMPLETELY different from anything we usually encounter at any of the Lenten fish frys, so even though I didn't get to eat any of that stuff, I think this one is well worth checking out just for the adventure and homey-ness and hospitality of it all....
Anybody else got any thoughts? (Post your comments below!)
NEXT UP: We cook and share a meal at The Catholic Worker Storefront on Friday, February 22. Details TBA ASAP!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Week 1: St Procop's
We began the 2008 Fabulous Fish Fry Tour of Northeast Ohio on the first Friday of Lent, of course (Feb 8, 2008) at our one and only annual stop: St Procop's Catholic Church.
St Procop's is located at 3181 West 41st Street, Cleveland, OH 44109.
Ten bucks for an adult meal, if I remember correctly.
***
How can you not love the food there? Omigosh, the menu is extensive--I had baked fish, three pierogi (each one weighed the same as my Saturn Ion, I swear) with sauteed onions on top (optional), coleslaw, applesauce, a roll with butter, french fries and a piece of cake.
Giving up meat on Friday has never been so easy! (I think I probably gained four pounds!)
Two of my favorite notes about the night:
a. St Procop's serves a free hot meal to hungry, perhaps generally homeless, people of the neighborhood most of the Fridays during the year. A number of those "regulars" didn't realize that "their" meal had been shifted to Thursday nights during Lent, and were showing up for their usual dinnertime. I wished I'd brought some extra cash to get someone a meal like the rest of us were having.....but was at least glad to be able to share the information that there would be a hot meal at the Catholic Worker Storefront (near 44th and Lorain, so relatively close-by) at 7pm. I would seriously value there being some way for more of the "usual" Friday night crowd at Procop's to be able to share in the Fish Fry extravaganzas there.....I don't know how to make that happen, though....
b. After we'd finished up our own meals, we took a meal over to our friend Mammy--who was one of the instigators and eternal-companions for the Fish Fry Tour--at St Augustine Manor. She was sound asleep when we arrived, but woke with joyful anticipation when she realized that if she couldn't join the Tour, the Tour would come find her!
Anybody else got any thoughts, stories, observations, favorite things, etc, about the Procop Fry that you'd like to share with the rest of us?
Stay tuned for Week 2: Sagrada Familia!
St Procop's is located at 3181 West 41st Street, Cleveland, OH 44109.
Ten bucks for an adult meal, if I remember correctly.
***
How can you not love the food there? Omigosh, the menu is extensive--I had baked fish, three pierogi (each one weighed the same as my Saturn Ion, I swear) with sauteed onions on top (optional), coleslaw, applesauce, a roll with butter, french fries and a piece of cake.
Giving up meat on Friday has never been so easy! (I think I probably gained four pounds!)
Two of my favorite notes about the night:
a. St Procop's serves a free hot meal to hungry, perhaps generally homeless, people of the neighborhood most of the Fridays during the year. A number of those "regulars" didn't realize that "their" meal had been shifted to Thursday nights during Lent, and were showing up for their usual dinnertime. I wished I'd brought some extra cash to get someone a meal like the rest of us were having.....but was at least glad to be able to share the information that there would be a hot meal at the Catholic Worker Storefront (near 44th and Lorain, so relatively close-by) at 7pm. I would seriously value there being some way for more of the "usual" Friday night crowd at Procop's to be able to share in the Fish Fry extravaganzas there.....I don't know how to make that happen, though....
b. After we'd finished up our own meals, we took a meal over to our friend Mammy--who was one of the instigators and eternal-companions for the Fish Fry Tour--at St Augustine Manor. She was sound asleep when we arrived, but woke with joyful anticipation when she realized that if she couldn't join the Tour, the Tour would come find her!
Anybody else got any thoughts, stories, observations, favorite things, etc, about the Procop Fry that you'd like to share with the rest of us?
Stay tuned for Week 2: Sagrada Familia!
Now We Begin
Okay, so for the first five years or so, the Fish Fry Tour was really just something we talked about over coffee.
Then for two years we actually started GOING to fish fries.
The SECOND year, we started talking about blogging our way through this experience.
And now, in our third fantastic year of the Fabulous Fish Fry Tour of Northeast Ohio, we're doing it: here, in all of its ludicrous glory, is our long-anticipated blog! WOO HOO!
I think the plan is for us to check in and post our thoughts about each week's fry experience--from the food itself to the prices, the ambiance and whatever other miscellaneous loveliness we encounter along the way....
Off we go, then, friends!
Then for two years we actually started GOING to fish fries.
The SECOND year, we started talking about blogging our way through this experience.
And now, in our third fantastic year of the Fabulous Fish Fry Tour of Northeast Ohio, we're doing it: here, in all of its ludicrous glory, is our long-anticipated blog! WOO HOO!
I think the plan is for us to check in and post our thoughts about each week's fry experience--from the food itself to the prices, the ambiance and whatever other miscellaneous loveliness we encounter along the way....
Off we go, then, friends!
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