Day 36: Eating Fish During Great Lent - March 25 (Part 1)

During Great Lent, there are two days during which fish is permitted: March 25, as it commemorates the Annunciation of the Theotokos, and Palm Sunday. Today is March 25th and we will be discussing our personal experience with eating fish today. 

Today's and tomorrow's blog entries consists of three parts: 

i)  Eating fish at Church (today's entry)

ii) Fast food fish options (today's entry)

iii) A healthy home-made fish meal, accompanied by Skordalia (Greek garlic dip) and lettuce and dill salad (see Day 5: Tzatziki and Greek Lettuce and Dill Salad) (tomorrow's entry)

i) Our experience has been that almost all Greek Orthodox Churches in Canada, the U.S. and Australia offer a Lenten fish dinner following March 25th Church service. As eating fish is permitted today, offering a fish lunch/dinner to the public serves two purposes: the Church encourages community building while also being a potential fundraiser for the Church's needs.

Above photo: The fish offered by our Church this March 25th. It consists of a baked filet of sole, lightly floured and seasoned with lemon salt and pepper, a rice medley with vegetables (chopped onions and celery), lemon wedges, a mixed salad and a whole bun.

ii)  Many fast food chains in Canada and the U.S. today offer some type of fish option. Some use inexpensive, low quality fish that is textureless and flavourless, while other chains offer pretty delightful and flavourful options.


Below are some of the many fish options available for you to choose. 

Restaurant Chain (and country)	Menu Item and Photo	Company information  about item
Arby’s (Canada)	No fish item is sold at this restaurant chain.	No information is available.
Arby’s (U.S.)	Fish Sandwich	Click here
Burger King (Canada)	BK Big Fish	Click here
Burger King (U.S.)	BK Big Fish	Click here
Carl’s Jr. (U.S.)	Carl’s Catch Fish Sandwich	Click here
Harvey’s (Canada)	No fish item is sold at this restaurant chain.	No information is available.
In-And-Out (U.S.)	No fish item is sold at this restaurant chain.	No information is available.
Jack-In-The-Box (U.S.)	Fish and Chips (seasonal item) and Fish Sandwich (seasonal item)	Click here
Long John Silver	Various combinations of Whitefish Fillets, Baja Fish Taco, Alaskan Pollock, Tilapia (No individual photos are available on Long John Silver's corporate website.)	Click here
McDonalds (Canada)	Fillet-o-fish   and Double Fillet-o-fish	Click here and here.
McDonalds (U.S.)	Filet-o-fish	Click here
Subway (Canada)	Tuna Sub (contains mayonnaise)	Click here
Subway (U.S)	Tuna Sub (contains mayonnaise)	Click here
Taco Bell (Canada)	No fish item is sold at this chain.	No information is available.
Taco Bell (U.S.)	No fish item is sold at this chain.	No information is available.
Tim Horton’s (Canada)	No fish item is sold at this chain.	No information is available.
Wendy’s (Canada)	No fish item is sold at this chain.	No information is available.
Wendy’s (U.S.)	Premium Cod Fillet Sandwich	Click here
This table was created by the owners and writers of the blog greatlentgourmet.blogspot.com	All photos above are from each company's corporate website.	Information is current, as of March 25, 2012
	Please note that virtually all fish sandwiches listed above contain some sort of mayonnaise product by default. Some items even contain cheese. Except for Subway's mayonnaise-based Tuna Sandwich, all others can be modified, by request, by asking for the mayo and cheese to not be put on your sandwich.

Mark 6:30-44

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

 ³⁰ The apostles *gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. ³¹And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were manypeople coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) ³² They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

Five Thousand Fed

 ³³ The people saw them going, and many recognizedthem and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus went^[a]ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “^[b]This place is desolate and it is already quite late; ³⁶ send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves^[c]something to eat.” ³⁷ But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred ^[d]denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” ³⁸ And He *said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they *said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹And He commanded them all to ^[e]sit down by groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ They ^[f]sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. ⁴¹ And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, Heblessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept givingthem to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. ⁴⁴ There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.

(Source of text: 

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6%3A30-44&version=NASB)