Our Foodie Friday theme today is La Vigilia, the Christmas Eve tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Now what, you might ask, does a nice Jewish boy know about such things? Well, having spent a great deal of my youth around my best friend’s Italian mother and grandmother while they cooked, I know quite a bit. I know that they started to prepare this feast several days in advance, as they put salt cod into water to hydrate it (there was a running battle about using milk to do that). I know that they spent many hours over the subsequent days preparing all manner of seafood – fried, broiled, and baked. And I know that it all was mind-blowingly good.
There’s one thing I didn’t know, and still don’t, about the Feast: what does it represent? Everyone knows it came as a southern Italian tradition and there are lots of theories about the number 7. But apparently no one knows for sure and that’s the business point to end the week. Continue reading
Consult Keith 