2012 Week #1- Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The beginning of Lent. Easter is a movable date on the calendar. It is determined by the first Sunday that falls on or after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. The beginning of Lent starts forty days before on Ash Wednesday.

Thankfully for those of us that love Fish Fries, the Catholic Church decided that one of the things that should be abstained from during Lent was meat. We have discussed in earlier blogs why they didn’t consider fish meat.

What you may not know is that the most popular area of the country for Fish Fries is Wisconsin. They are often held both Friday and Wednesday and are not just held in Catholic Church parish halls, but also in many restaurants.

We don’t have quite so many options in Central Ohio but the intrepid Mak family went out again this past Friday, the first of Lent, in search of a new Fish Fry to review.

We headed south on 315 to Grove City, the home of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. We made it there by 5:15,quite a feat as anyone who has traveled south on 315 at that time of day may be able to tell you. There was already a line to the door in the school cafeteria.

The Knights of Columbus offer an all-you-can-eat Fish Fry with both fried and baked fish options. They also offer a fish sandwich or cheese pizza. The Fish dinner is $8.00 and comes with two side dish options. Dinners also include a beverage either canned soda, ice tea or lemon aid.

The dinner price for Seniors ( 60+) is $6.00 and kids 12 and under are $3.00. Unlike some fish fries we have visited in the past there is no Family price but I think the fish being all-you-can-eat makes up for that, especially with two teenagers at my house.

Each of us chose fried fish and were given two fish triangles. The two adults chose baked potatoes and cole slaw as our side dishes, Fe chose potato salad and green beans, Z chose macaroni and cheese and green beans. If you are still hungry after you eat your first two fish they come around offering seconds.

I’m not usually a fan of triangle shaped fish but this was surprisingly good and very importantly hot. The baked potatoes were wrapped in foil and a nice size and the slaw was delicious. The kids both said the green beans were very good as well. Fe said the potato salad was ok and the macaroni and cheese was good if you like the “Kraft” style.

We were a bit surprised to find that they didn’t serve French fries, something we would recommend for any fish fry. I also thought it was a bit odd that they served the butter, sour cream and tartar sauce in vats with ladles for you to top your potato and fish. Buttering a potato with a ladle is a challenge, and it was kind of messy. I would have rather had individual servings or maybe bowls on the tables.

Dinner is served in the school cafeteria. Seating for most of us was bench style which means wriggling yourself onto those folding lunch tables you remember from childhood. They did have more conventional seating, but most all of this was marked for “Seniors Only."
Since they were very busy we had to wedge ourselves into a spot for at a kid sized table and were fortunate to sit next to the Principal of the school and her family. Her husband was a source of all kinds of information and we learned that the Knights of Columbus of this Parish do all kinds of things for the local church with their fund raising including scholarships for kids from O.L.O.P.H. to go to Bishop Reedy High School.

An added bonus was the running a 50/50 raffle. Thom won and the pot nearly paid for dinner. We thought about going down the hall to the Bingo night to see if we could keep up the winning but in the end we passed.

If you are in the Grove City area on Friday evenings during Lent, we would recommend stopping in to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. And if you are looking for something to do after dinner, check out the Bingo down the hall.

Next week: New Albany.

5th Friday of Lent: Part II.

5th Friday of Lent

St Matthias

F remarked with some relief that giving up on inciting religious genocide for Lent is going well, though the first two weeks were kind of hard.

This week our master blogger was trapped in Dayton, so she entrusted the dinner choice and keyboard to us and the three of us ventured out to St Matthias, 1566 Ferris Road on the north side of town.

St Matthias was the 13th apostle; chosen after Judas betrayed Jesus Christ. The remaining disciples needed to fill in the line-up. They narrowed down their choices between Joseph and Matthias and then they prayed about it, asking God to help them with the choice. Then the rolled some dice, God intervened and Matthias got called up to the majors. He is often depicted with an axe.

Matthias is the Patron saint of alcoholism, carpenters, small pox and tailors. In the US, he’s the patron of Gary, Indiana and Billings, Montana.

Depending on what you read, he died of old age, beheading or stoning and is buried in modern Day Georgia, Ethiopia or Jerusalem respectively.

But enough about history, right? You came for the review, didn’t you?

The Fry is actually served in the attached school gym. Once you get to the parking lot, signs are pretty easy to spot. The school must decorate for this time of year, for there were shoals of fishes tacked to the hallway corridors leading to the gym.

It seems they do a brisk carry out business. The first desk we came to had a line and a number of people waiting. This was for take-away.
If you’re staying for dinner, walk into the gym. Volunteer staff will seat you. Menus are at the table. Waitstaff take your order, tally up the money, give change and deliver your order. It seems like this would have a lot of people handling the money, but it seems to work for them. They also bus the tables and reset them, so they’re busy bunch.

The staff we spoke with didn’t seem to know what they were raising money for and whether it was for the school or the church. The lady next to us thought that it went to the General Fund, but she goes to a church down the road.

In addition to baked fish, which looked very good there are 3 options for fried fish. There is a 1 piece small or a 2 piece large, plus a 9 oz piece. (Largest?) The former were the same type of fish, uniformly triangular and seemed processed. The 9 oz piece was a nice piece of lightly breaded cod. We shared pieces around and all believed that the 9 oz piece was the best. F didn’t think there was any reason to order a Large dinner since a bigger, better fish dinner was just 50 cents more.

French fries were had by all, and they were bad. Probably the worst we’ve had all season. Dry and dusty; no amount of condiments could save them. Letting them get cold only made them worse.
Others around us raved about the baked potato. We should have tried one.

The coleslaw seemed tart and was not too well received. The apple sauce was cinnamon-ny and this was a plus.

Fruit punch and ice tea were included. Pepsi products were extra. Perhaps because St Matthias is the Patron of alcoholism, there was no beer or wine available at any cost.

I did try the clam chowder. It came highly recommended by our waitress, though she did admit that it was not homemade. I think that would be quite a feat to cook clam chowder for hundreds each week. Our table mates reported that they get it from GFS. It was not bad.

Maybe the highlight was the desserts. St. Matthias caters in pies from “Just Pies” in Worthington. These are circulated on carts, dim sum-fashion. Large wedges of pie are $2.25 which is the highest we’ve paid for desserts, but on a per calorie basis they’re probably competitive.

This event had lots of regulars. You could feel the sense of community in the familiar greetings and hugs amongst the diners. From a quality point of view though, this location was pretty average with the 9 oz. fish and the desserts being the high points.

There were pictures to go along with this entry, but I couldn't get them inserted with Blogger.com. Will work on that and try for next time.

See you next week!

4th Week of Lent- St. Brendans, Hilliard

This week’s Fish Fry was a whole new adventure. The Mak family plus our honored guest my Mother-in-law K, went to St. Brendan’s Catholic School in Hilliard for our dinner.

This was our first visit to a school for a Fish Fry, and it was great to see the kids working for their fundraiser. St. Brendan’s Fish Fry is a fundraising activity for their Eighth Grade’s class trip. We did some research and discovered that they are headed to Philadelphia and Gettysburg.

We also tried to discover the amount of their fundraising goal, but neither the kids nor any of the parents were able to tell us or how much they raised on a weekly basis. They did assure us that they raised a good amount of money. From the size of the crowd, it would seem they could all travel quite comfortably.

Because we were in a school, I was intrigued by the name of St. Brendan. There were pictures of him in a sail boat, and the school mascot is the dolphin. A quick trip to our friends at Google told me that St. Brendan was a monk in Ireland born in 484 AD.

The legend behind the boat is tells that he set sail with some other monks and found and island known as Paradise. There seems to be speculation that the land they found is part of North America.

After last week’s post, I can let you know that their signage was excellent. Well-placed street signs guide you into the parking lot and once you are there signs on where the Fish Fry is and what the menu is are well placed in the building.

We can tell you that they were a really nice bunch of kids from what we saw. When you arrive, you pay at the cashier who also takes your order, fried fish or baked and potatoes. Then one of the students seats you and serves you your order.

We all ordered the adult menu, $8.50 each, no family discount. Every one of us ordered fried fish and I ordered the baked potato. The rest of the family had fries. Our meals also came with coleslaw, canned green beans and rolls. Beverages are included in the meal, tea, coffee, soft drinks, lemonade. Beer was an additional cost of $3. Kid’s meals were available with pizza.

We all agreed that the fish was very good, lovely breading and very tasty. The fries were crispy and hot and my baked potato was well done. We also appreciate the attempt at a vegetable, but canned green beans are never any good. The rolls were said to be baked fresh and I am sure that they were, but they were also average.

Throughout the meal, kids and adults come around with cups of condiments for you, coming back to make sure that you have what you need. We tried desserts as well, all homemade and all very good. If you are on the west side I would recommend this one. The food was good, and I am a sucker for supporting kids in their effort to fund raise.

Our Lady of Victory-Marblecliff

Loyal Readers: I am sorry for the delay this week. Being a single parent last week kept me busy and distracted. Fear not though here is Fish Fry week two.

Our party was down to three this week due to a minor bug that had Z down for the count last Friday. So it was up to Thom, F and I to venture out to Our Lady of Victory in Upper Arlington. Due to the Buckeye basketball game we started a bit later just to confirm our Buckeyes had a decisive lead, then checked on Z, took her carry out order and headed out into the rain.

If you are looking for scenery, give Our Lady of Victory two thumbs up. It is nestled in Marble Cliff one of the more beautiful neighborhoods in Columbus. Lots of big trees and winding roads with a bit of a hill, such as we have in Central Ohio, surround the area. I imagine it will be even more beautiful when spring gets a little more established here in Columbus.

We lined up with the crowd at the entrance and paid for our four meals, three to eat in and one to carry out. Adults were $9 each and kids, 12 and under, were $5 which covered everything. There was no family discount.

The main attraction is the FRESH LAKE ERIE PERCH! Ok, yes, I grew up on Lake Erie and am a bit partial. That said, I didn’t love the breading, but both boys did, and the couple we shared our table with were regulars, so clearly it must be a taste thing. This mother and son pair also told us that the church has it brought in fresh every Friday.

There is also the ever present coleslaw, steak fries and bake potatoes. They will get credit too for offering salad and rice as options. Bread with butter too. And for all you fans, Grandview’s own, Rotollo’s Pizza is an option for the kids meals.

I enjoyed my baked potato, especially since they had sour cream after our first week’s experience. F thought the fries were too salty but good. We should also note that our family is not big steak fry fans, so French fries would always make us happier.

Desserts were clearly homemade which is a plus as far as I am concerned, and our mint chocolate bundt cake was a hit at our table.

Sodas and water are included. Beer and wine are available for a donation.

We brought a carry-out meal home to Z. We aren’t sure if it was because of the lateness of the hour or because it was carry-out but she was given four pieces of fish instead of our three. The food transported well enough, but I’m not sure that anything fried is as good once it has cooled off. Even so, she gave her dinner a thumbs up.

Coming soon, our review of St. Paul’s in Westerville.

Plus, we’ve added share buttons to make sharing this blog with your friends even easier.

2011: First week of Lent- St. Patricks, Downtown Columbus

Lent begins again and the intrepid Mak family is off in search of Columbus’s best Catholic Fish Fry.  Our hope this year is to visit new locations and explore new offerings.

 

If  you are considering visiting any of our locations from last year, we would love to hear of any changes and updates.  We discussed over dinner what our favorite was from last year and we universally agreed that it was St. Michaels on High Street in Worthington.  In fact, it was the one that was requested for a return visit this year.

 Both the Mak-lings are entering that phase of adolescents where they have plans on the weekends that don’t involve their parents.  I include this as a ray of hope for my friends with younger children who feel like it is impossible to spend an evening alone with your spouse. Your day will come!  

The downfall of this is that we are now glorified chauffeurs doing the pick-up and drop-off all night long. Even with a busy Friday evening our dedication is to you, so our family of four ventured out early to St. Patrick Catholic Church at 280 N. Grant in Downtown Columbus.

Because our children’s busy schedules dictated, we were early birds and pulled into the parking lot at 5pm. The lot was filled with teenagers getting ready for an event, happily joshing and horsing around. We worked our way into what looked like a newer parish hall and found ourselves first in line.

Our dinner was a choice of two types of fish, fried or baked.  Each dinner had two pieces though you were not allowed to mix and match. All of us opted for fried, I think in honor of our first of the season.  Though, I did try and get one of each. There was also macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and two types of potatoes, baked and French fries.  Dessert was homemade brownies and cupcakes.  Drinks were sodas, water, and fruity punch as part of the dinner price or wine and beer for a $2.50 donation. Adult dinners were $9, kids 12 and under were $4 and there was a family deal for $30.

Probably because we were the first ones there and this was the first Fish Fry of the season, they were a bit disorganized but they quickly recovered and were able to sort out what color our ticket was supposed and what their portion control was we were quickly served with a smile. 

Along with our fish each of us had the mac and cheese. Thom and the kids had coleslaw and fries and I tried the baked potato.  The food was basic but generally tasty. The fish was hot and crispy, but F decided felt that it was “uniformed in shape and that kind of creeps me out.” The baked potato was good but they had only butter and oddly, cream cheese but not sour cream.  The French fries were proclaimed good but needed salt. Thom and the kids thought the mac and cheese was good and it was better than average but I thought it was only just above average. I will admit to being pretty picky about my mac and cheese. We all thought the brownies were great and Z claimed a coveted corner piece.  F thought his cupcake was good.

If our visit is an example of what to expect in the future I would suggest this for families with small kids you want to feed early since it was easy to get in and out and the portions were filling. The people were friendly and by the time we left to drop the kids off for their evenings of fun the room was filling up with families with small children.

Again, if you go to a fish fry, let us know what you think.  We need contributors, so feel free to chime in!

Bonus: Fish Fries Fijian Style

Guest Entry: The Lovo Pack


My family are not church-goers, but our Fijian nanny is, and recently we supported her church fundraiser by buying one of their freshly made, home delivered, 'lovo packs'.

First, I should explain that we live in Fiji and a lovo is the traditional Fijian earth oven. And second, I will admit, I would have bought a lovo pack from T, our nanny, even if it wasn't for her fundraiser, because lovo food, if you've never had the opportunity to eat it, is yummy. In fact, my husband's cousin's wife, J, actually makes and sells lovo packs, as a side gig to her catering business. Her’s are very tasty.

But, here I'll start with T's Orepi Original Pentecostal Church lovo pack, perhaps a Fijian equivalent to a Catholic church fundraising fish fry.

You have to book ahead, so that the lovo-makers know how much food to get and put into the ground to cook. So, a couple of days before, T asked me, "Hey, do you want a lovo pack for Thursday? $20. It's for my church. Here's the menu." She produced a little scrap paper with the list of what my FJ$20 (US$10) would buy me: 1 x Dalo (Translation: Taro), 1 x Palusami (Taro leaves layered with coconut milk, onion & garlic), 1 x Piece Fish, 1 x Vakasakera (no idea, see below), 1 x #14 Chicken, 2 x Kai (fresh water mussels), 2 x Cassava. Hmmmm. Ok. I'm in.

On Thursday morning, T said that her son was helping dig up the lovo at the Orepi Original Pentecostal church. They started at 8 am and it cooked for 2 hours. At about 4pm, some guys from the church dropped off the cardboard box, our lovo pack, to our house.

It wasn't hot, like straight out of an underground oven full of smokey rocks. In fact, we were the last to get our delivery, so the box was soggy. The other packs were delivered to office workers for their lunches that afternoon. Yet, I was still excited that this was going to be our not so warm dinner because the box smelled like your clothes do after sitting next to a campfire all night.

When my husband, T, came home, he was skeptical about my choice for dinner, "you know you can't trust these lovo packs. Sometimes those churches use frozen chickens, past their use-by date." Bleh! You will eat it because I didn't cook anything else.

I noted that the fish looked like it was over fried. That's because it wasn't cooked in the lovo at all, but instead fried separately. So, it was not remarkable. The chicken, while it's skin looked soggy and grey (It was in the ground for 2 hours, so maybe that's normal), it tasted nice, moist and smokey. No complaints from T either. I wasn't aware of the chicken numbering system until I got to Fiji, but a #14 chicken is a smallish one. It would probably only serve two adults if eaten without all the other goodies in our lovo pack.

The two fresh water mussels, or kai, looked like food-poison-in-a-half-shell. They were also not cooked in the ground, but fried or baked instead. T said I could have both of them, so I did. But they were very gritty in texture and tasted just plain odd. I quickly followed them with a Fiji Gold beer chaser. The dalo was as to be expected, dense, sweet yet smokey. The cassava, very dry, but maybe that is to be expected as well.

The palusami was very creamy and tasty, the perfect balance between onion, coconut milk and dalo leaves. Sometimes palusami, if the wrong type of dalo leaves are picked, can give your throat a razor blade itch, but luckily with this one I didn't feel any discomfort. It was just pure yumminess.

The absolute best was the vakasakera, which I hadn't tried before. I think it's best described as Fijian coleslaw. It's a mixture of thick coconut cream, kai, fish, clams (kaikoso) onion and a certain cabbage, finely chopped, that is called mosita in Fijian. It tasted fresh, crunchy, creamy and zingy all at once - lovely.

Our daughter, E, loved the dalo (the texture/taste is growing on her), forced down the palusami and vakasakera and she will always eat chicken, even if it was old, previously frozen and cooked in the ground.

The Orepi Original Pentecostal church lovo pack, while it was a little bit suspicious on delivery and presentation, was tasty, convenient and great value for money. We had enough lovo lunch leftovers for the next 2 days.

I must share though, that we all came down with a bad bout of gastro on Sunday, but we are attributing that to our walk with the puppy at the very dirty Suva waterfront on Saturday afternoon, but I'll spare you the details.

5th Week of Lent: St. Andrew's- Upper Arlington

I’ve mentioned that I grew up Lutheran.  I was always amazed by the big Catholic Church down the street in my home town.  I’m pretty sure we never went to any fish fries there.

There are lots of ways that churches can fundraise and feed the people. I know that my current church, Clinton Heights Lutheran, has a pasta dinner on Shrove Tuesday and a Pancake breakfast in the summer.  I have also seen signs for pasta dinners in front of the Methodist church on Broadway.

Lutherans are famous for is a good potluck supper, just ask Garrison Keillor. I am not suggesting that other churches can’t pull off good pot luck; I am just going by what I know.

 I have memories of heaving tables of food.  I grew up in communities with lots of Eastern Europeans.  So, there were not only deviled eggs,  myriad Jello salads, and green bean casserole, but cabbage rolls and goulash.

 I am pretty sure I have at one point or another tried every form of Jello and enjoyed most of them. Yes, I know that it isn’t vegetarian, so it is all a memory, but a fond one. I think the only one I didn’t like was carrots and raisins. But then I have never liked raisins.

I also remember these as wonderful feasts with lots of fellowship and children running around having fun. The only downfall being that my Father always insisted we go through the line together and as the minister he went through last.  That’s a sure way to miss out on the deviled eggs.

When we have visited the various Catholic Churches over the weeks I have seen this feeling of community there, too. It is good to see.  I think it is something that we should look for in our lives whenever we can.  It may be at church or school or your sports team, but it is good to sit down for a meal together, enjoy each other’s company and watch the children play.

This week we ventured over to Upper Arlington to St. Andrew’s on McCoy Rd. We were lured by the promises of salad.  It sounded a little healthier than your average fried fish fare.

 

My first suggestion for St. Andrew’s would be:  better signage. It was easy enough to find the church but once we were in the parking lot it was difficult to decide what door to go through.

Once we found it, we discovered yet another twist on how to serve a fish fry! The ladies at the door take your initial order, baked or fried or kids pizza, fish or macaroni and cheese. You then proceed to the cashier to pay and get your dessert and drink tickets.

The meal is served in a buffet style and they have figured out how to do that and keep it hot. It is not all you can eat, but the portions are large and should be filling for most people.  T and F both had fried fish with fries, coleslaw and F had green beans. Z went for the kid’s macaroni and cheese, fries, applesauce and salad. I had the baked fish, baked potato, and green beans. Warm rolls added to the starch factor.

The fried fish was very good. The baked fish, while flavorful, was tough. I thought the baked potato was great and the fries were just the way I liked them, hot and salty.  The others thought they were too salty.  Z thought the macaroni and cheese tasted good, but was too runny. The coleslaw was creamy and tangy.  The servings were large.

 If you grew up liking the canned green beans your school served like I did, you will love their green beans, too. As for the salad I was disappointed; iceberg lettuce and dressing.

This was the second church that we noted having milk as a drink option with both chocolate and white. Also, the desserts were all homemade and with lots of variety. Drinks and dessert were included in our dinner price.

The prices are $8 for adults and $4 for kids so our whole family ate for $28.

We have one more Friday for our review. I have ideas for blogging our family diner breakfasts and other adventures with our adolescents.  I am looking for ideas for a name….any suggestions?

4th Week of Lent: St. Margaret's of Cortona

It is a very bold statement to bill yourself as the “best” of something, but that is what St. Margaret’s of Cortona, on Hague Av, does at their Fish Fry with big, bold signs and T-shirts. This required our intrepid family of Fish Fry connoisseurs to investigate.

If numbers of people make you the best, they certainly have that in their favor. Because F and I were traveling this weekend we had an early dinner at St. Margaret’s. T. met the kids and I there and reported that patrons were wrapped around the building at 4:30! Police were there for crowd control.  At 5:00 we definitely hit the senior crowd and crowded it was. Their dining hall was stuffed to the gills (pun intended).

St. Margaret’s managed to put a new twist on how to serve a Fish Fry.  Once we entered and purchased our tickets we were sent off to find seats among the long a banquet tables. We worked our way through the crowds and staked out our four seats. Then we were told to wave our tickets in the air and one of the servers came to take our order.

Options for dinner were: fish, baked or fried, baked potatoes, French fries or steak fries, apple sauce or coleslaw and a roll. T, F and Z all had the fried fish and I sampled the baked. Everyone had French fries.  Z had apple sauce while the rest of us tried the coleslaw.

 I thought the baked fish was fabulous! It was nice and moist and had a lovely dill sauce.  Z grumbled a bit about the lack of macaroni and cheese, but enjoyed the fish. T and F both thought the fish was good, but T said he prefers less of a breaded batter that was served at St. Margaret’s.  We all thought the fries were good. The coleslaw was both creamy and tangy and enjoyed by all three eaters. It is important to note that everything came out hot. Dessert was also included and while we did not confirm this we think that the desserts were home made.

On the down side St. Margaret’s was the most expensive Fish Fry we have eaten at. Children ten and over are adults so we paid the $8 price for all four of us. They also charge .75 for cans of soft drinks and $2.00 for beer domestic beer. You are able to get free “seconds” on your fish however our portions were large enough that it wasn’t necessary.

You could also spend $10 on a commemorative t-shirt.  (I thought it was cool looking, but didn’t buy one.) Another smart move on their part, St. Margaret’s has a cash machine at their entrance. Maybe it was for the fish, maybe for the bingo that seems to be played at other times. 

 

Overall, it was a very good meal.  Many in the crowd commented that this was the Best Fish Fry in Columbus, but among us, it was no one’s favorites so far.

On side note, F and I stopped at Max and Erma’s on our drive back to Columbus and he tried the fish and chips dinner. He decided that the Catholic Churches serve better fish!  I couldn’t get him to be any more descriptive , but since he is a teenager we will have to settle for that.

Next week:  St. Andrew’s in UA! See you there!