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Feast of The Seven Fishes

We watched a story the other night about the Feast of the Seven Fishes. It’s a Christmas Eve tradition for many Italians but Vince had never heard of it. Watching the seafood being prepared and the meals, the homemade pasta, Vince was close to drooling. I thought . . I wonder if there’s a way I could surprise him and make something similar and it could become our Christmas Eve tradition.

I googled “where to buy fish in Joplin, MO” and here’s the top suggestion.

That wasn’t exactly the suggestion I was expecting.

Here’s what I know I can get:

  1. Scallops (frozen)
  2. Shrimp (frozen)
  3. Tilapia (fresh but probably previously frozen)
  4. Salmon (fresh)
  5. Crab
  6. Oysters (in a tub – already shucked)

I’ll make a trip to the Neighborhood Market one day and I can always stop at Dollar General on my way there! 🙂 Walmart often has frozen lobster tails. Again, nothing like fresh but may work. I used to order live lobsters that would be delivered overnight but I’m sure those are way over my budget these days and getting them here on Christmas Eve is probably not happening.

Walmart used to have breaded, frozen calamari and it wasn’t the best but it wasn’t awful. They’re not showing that in stock at the stores here. I’m only short one so I know I can come up with something. I could never make it like they have in New York or places where they have fish markets (or water!) but I think Vince would appreciate my attempt.

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Comments

  2. You could do something comical with the 7th fish like Goldfish crackers or Swedish Fish candy.

  3. Yeah, I would be a bit hesitant to purchase it there too lol.. I would ask one of the grocery stores. I know here Hy-Vee and Fareway can order stuff for me. The best time to get it is during or around Lent and put it in the freezer for later. That way I don’t get stuck having to buy the whole bulk order they have to buy. With it being close to Christmas it is possible they would have it in stock or order it and not make me purchase the entire bulk order.

    • We’re pretty limited to Walmart so I don’t think there’s much I can do about getting it.

  4. You might also try a roadside produce stand. Our usual stand sells oysters and seasonal fish. His supplier has other fish and seafood but we have to pre-order because it’s usually something the produce stand doesn’t sell a lot of.

    • I have yet to see one of those kinds of stands around here. Not saying they aren’t here but I haven’t seen roadside fruit or produce stands.

  5. Judy, do you have a Whole Foods nearby? Amazon (they own Whole Foods now). A real butcher shop – maybe in Joplin. Search out Feast of the Seven Fishes – you might find many different Italian celebrations with different recipes. Sounds like a neat thing to do!

    • Not near a Whole Foods. Called the butcher shops today and they said no .. they don’t carry even frozen seafood nor do they know anyone who does.

  6. Look for frozen crawfish. I made a cajun pasta dish with crawfish and it was fabulous.

    • Vince doesn’t like crawfish except fresh boiled. He thinks the frozen ones taste too fishy but I would love the pasta dish. I guess if there are six other types of fish he could eat, I could have all the crawfish for myself. 🙂

    • I did not even know they had anything other than steak. Thanks! I’m going to go to the Neighborhood Market next week and see what I can find and then I may order from them.

  8. I think that is a wonderful and sweet thing for you to do for him. I know he would appreciate it.

    • The only thing in that package I can’t get here is calamari and all of their fish is frozen. The price isn’t bad though.

  10. What about Aldi. I saw they had lobster tail in the weekly ad. And bacon wrapped scallops next week. Who knows you might find calamari.

    • They do sometimes have lobster tails and those would be great. I can get frozen scallops at Aldi pretty much all the time. The only calamari I’ve seen there is breaded and ready to fry, which is not bad and would work for our 7 Fishes but I would love to find it not breaded. I’ve seen it at Walmart but not lately.

      • Aldi’s has a frozen bag of mixed seafood my husband uses when he makes cioppino or gumbo.

  11. Goggle a pasta sauce made with tuna fish, one dish Grandma Mary served was pasta made with canned tuna fish, I think the one she used was packed in olive oil.

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