Fascination Street

So, it’s been awhile since I posted on here but recently I have acquired a new obsession that fits nicely with the idea of Mancipes. It’s a Southern Italian tradition called The Feast of The Seven Fishes. I stumbled on this past Christmas and I’m completely fascinated by it.

It all began when I picked up a book of traditional recipes from Prickett’s Fort. That night, I read about a seven course fish-based meal served on Christmas Eve. As a lover of seafood I was immediately intrigued. The very next evening I was at our local comic shop’s annual Christmas bash, sitting at a table with Robert Tinnell (producer of Surf Nazi’s Must Die! And writer of such amazing Horror-inspired comics as The Black Forest and Flesh & Blood) and some others. As it turns out, our local festival, The Feast of the Seven Fishes, has a lot to do with he and his wife. As he began to talk about this tradition, I realized that this was exactly what I had been reading about! Mr. Tinnell has also published a comic strip book/recipe book about “The Feast” and he and his wife had recently completed a PBS cooking show based on some of the wonderful recipes.

If you are interested….

The book can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Seven-Fishes-Collected-Cookbook/dp/0976928809/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327764541&sr=1-1

The DVD can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Feast-Fishes-Holiday-Cooking-Special/dp/B006B8L3VK/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1327764603&sr=1-1

Basically, as I understand it, The Feast of the Seven Fishes is traditionally held on Christmas Eve. Family and friends gather to share appetizers, soups, salads, and main courses all based on basic fish ingredients. Since this comes from an Italian peasant tradition many of the ingredients are inexpensive, such as tuna, anchovies, shrimp, whiting, smelt and baccala (salted cod), the latter of which is used in quite a few of the dishes. Aside from the fish items, there are healthy doses of salads, capers, potatoes, and tomatoes in the dishes as well.

Since I have become so interested in this, I plan to try it out this year (although Christmas Eve is likely impossible) at some point. I have already tried a few dishes and am ready to try a few more in an attempt to put together seven favorites for my own first feast. I’ll be posting my experiments here as I go along and I hope you’ll consider letting the Mancipe Army in on some of your favorites if “The Feast” is a tradition in your family!