Fish Fry Edition

Celebrating 20 Years

Our parish, Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Middletown, Pa, has been hosting an annual Lenten fish fry each Friday of Lent (excluding Good Friday) for twenty years! It’s a local attraction of sorts with delicious food and a fun and friendly atmosphere. More than 100 volunteers are required each week to keep the operation running.

The Queue

The line starts here in the gym. It’s hard to make out in this picture, but the line wraps around the perimeter then weaves back and forth between rows of chairs. The area in the center is set up with balls and hoops to keep the little kids occupied while they wait. Lenten comic strips decorate the walls along with the menu.

–3–

The Dining Room

Once you make it through the gym, you are seated downstairs in the upper or lower cafeteria where you are greeted by volunteer servers and a basket of rolls.

–4–

Menu

Here’s a peek at the menu. The fish & chips are most popular, but you can choose crab cakes, macaroni and cheese, baked haddock, shrimp, scallops, pierogies, and more!

–5–

All You Can Eat

These are the all-you-can-eat fish & chips baskets. The two- or three-piece fish & chips are enough for us, but these are extremely popular.

–6–

Dessert

You’d better hope you didn’t give up sweets or dessert for Lent because these desserts are out of this world. My son and I are fans of the coconut cream pie. The most popular dessert – also delicious! – is the lemon-berry mascarpone cake.

–7–

Chocolate-Dipped Eggs

In case you didn’t have room for dessert after all that fish and French fries, you can buy one of these hand-dipped 2.4-oz. chocolate eggs for $1.00. They come in peanut butter, butter cream, peppermint, and coconut cream and are dipped in either milk, dark, or white chocolate. In 2016, volunteers made 62,000 eggs!

Do you patronize a local fish fry during Lent?

###

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t the Lyceum.

---

 Thanks for stopping by! Stay a while and look around. Leave a comment. Share with a friend. If you like what you see, please sign up from my author newsletter to keep up-to-date on new releases, extras, and hot deals!