![]() The longtime presence of powerhouse regional fish distributor Robert Wholey & Co. At the same time, technological advances in frozen food and the growth of fast food were making fish more accessible. ![]() That made February to April a concentrated period of fish consumption.įood touchstones like fish fries, pierogies and the “ cookie table ” - a western Pennsylvania wedding staple - became signifiers of identity. Long a tradition in American cities with Catholic communities, particularly around the Great Lakes, fish fries surged in popularity after the Second Vatican Council essentially told the faithful in 1966 that the practice of not eating meat on Fridays was optional - except during Lent, the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Western Pennsylvania loves the past, but the fish fry itself is steered by some very modern forces. ![]() Some chow down right there - fish and shrimp, fries and cole slaw and mac and cheese, sometimes pierogies or a local noodle-and-cabbage delicacy called haluski. “Allowing people to interact with something traditional through technology, it adds an element to it that appeals to a different group of people,” says Ellie Newman, a member and the former leader of the nonprofit Code for Pittsburgh, which works with Barmer to operate the map.ĭuring Lent, thousands of western Pennsylvanians - Catholic and non-Catholic alike - stream into Friday afternoon fish fries. “Fish fries,” Barmer likes to say, “are an adventure.”Īt this moment in its history, Pittsburgh is working to blend its fabled industrial yesterdays with a 21st-century economy based increasingly on services and innovation - something the map project reflects. “I like to think that this project helps people get excited about these very old cultural and culinary traditions,” says Hollen Barmer, a Tennessee transplant who came to Pittsburgh two decades ago and started the map in 2012 for her fish-fry-loving self. In the process, the new Pittsburgh is helping point the way to the old. The fish fry, a long-established Friday staple during Lent, is roaring back from COVID with an assist from something decidedly newfangled: an interactive map built by local volunteer coders that points the way to scores of churches, fire halls and other places that offer battered and breaded seafood for the taking. And some arrive in a way that unites two rich seams of western Pennsylvania culture - tradition and innovation. But these days, newcomers figure in the mix, too. Aidan Catholic Parish north of Pittsburgh - and greet each other as longtime friends. Many patrons are members of the flock - St. Their objective: to occupy tables on the basketball court and, for the parish’s first time since the pandemic descended in 2020, sit down for an old-fashioned Lenten fish fry. (AP) - By the time the doors open at 4:30 p.m., a boisterous line of 50 hungry people is looping around the gymnasium foyer at Blessed Francis Seelos Academy. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |