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!