seacow

[Asset]

In the first century, Jews fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. The original Christians were all Jewish and were used to the fasting as a spiritual discipline. They moved the fast days to Wednesdays and Fridays, because Judas engineered Jesus' arrest on a Wednesday and Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Most often that fast took the form of avoiding meat in the diet. In those days, meat was a luxury food. You either had to buy it in a market or you had to own enough land to keep cattle. On the other hand, anyone could grow vegetables or forage for them, and anyone could catch a fish in a lake or a stream. You could buy better fish and vegetables, but the point is that you could eat without money if you were poor. So meat was rich people's food and fish was poor people's food. That is why the most common form of fasting was to omit meat and eat fish.

The Wednesday and Friday fasts were a universal Christian custom in ancient times. The Eastern Orthodox still observe these fasts. The Roman Catholic Church downplayed the Wednesday fast, but kept the Friday fast until quite recently. Anglicans and Protestants also observed these fasts. In the 18th century, a man could not be ordained a Methodist minister if he did not fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, with the reasoning that a person who could not rule his own belly could certainly not rule the church.

Ripped off some website

[mockney piers]

I think it's no meat on a friday for some reason. Humility or something, lord knows (baddam tish). I think you're average peasant rarely had a problem min the past sticking to that rule, or on a monday, or a tuesday, or a wedne........

[Fear 'n boozin]

That's made me rather happy. but I'm not sure why. Think it might be something to do with the change in fortunes between fish and meat, but can't place it! Cheers :)

[Keef]

Fear, do you mean you can't plaice it? Oi oi savaloy >:D

[Fear 'n boozin]

Snook off!

[TillieTrotter]

That takes me back a few years Keef. Oi Oi saveloy used to be shouted when you saw a pretty girl didnt it? Those were the days>:D

[Keef]

It did indeed, it would also be shouted at mates in the pub... Basically it was a very rubbish general greeting ;-)

[TillieTrotter]

I liked it, a sarf london war cry!;-)

[snorky]

catholic church politix - it was pushed to help promote the use of the masses salt cod being brought in by basque/ spanish fisherman form the Grand banks hundreds of years ago

[macroban]

> It's only Fish and Chips for @#$%& sake.

That's what the British government thought - until the First World War came along. It seems that the government was a little out of touch with the lives of ordinary people. When the government realised the importance of fish fryers to sustaining the home front government policy was reversed.

If anyone wants to read about it they can do so here:

John K. Walton

Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, 1870-1940

Leicester University Press

[SeanMacGabhann]

Resurrecting this one after an extensive article in today's Guardian where it gets a pretty ringing endorsement

Sea Cow

[macroban]

That's an endorsement? It might appear so on the surface. Read it again?

It's good the journalist has read the standard academic history and raided it for the article.

And I do like the word "snootification".

[Mark]

I'd say:

"The batter is delicious: thin and yet crispy, the fish beneath succulent. The thick, oblong chips are eloquent rebuttals to the claims of effete, stringy french fries. My one complaint? Not enough capers in the tartare sauce."

is an endorsement. What have we missed beneath that?

[Ted Max]

Did the Sea Cow really close Golden City - surely GC was gone long before 2003, or is my memory playing tricks?

Also, Jeffries writes, "There's a cabinet at the front of the shop with more outr? fresh fish from Billingsgate that you can choose for lunch".

Fresh fish? In London? Someone write to the reader's editor quick.

[macroban]

Ted Max has "got" it.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I thought the same about Golden City - has been closed for at least 6 years - Louisa? You can probably give us the history on that one

Mark - that was exactly the quote I was going to use to back up my statement - but to be fair by the end of the article he was "done" with the whole concept

A fairly fluffy article with plenty of innacuracies tho, so we shouldn't take it too seriously

edit: my spelling and typing are shocking

[Ted Max]

Ted Max has "got" it.

Have I. Is there a cure?

[Mark]

because the Golden City was closed before the Seacow came along? Or is it where they get their from? I still don't "get" it.

[Jah Lush]

Golden City has been shut for God knows how long, possibly ten years, way before Sea Cow opened up. I remember when I had a flat in nearby Townley Road in 1980 in was a terrific little fish shop then and I used it regularly. I still haven't tried the Sea Cow yet, perhaps I should remedy that today seeing as it's Poets Day.

[Mark]

just remembered this is in the Lounge.

Ted Max has got it everyone, rrrrruuunnnnn.

[Keef]

I'd say Golden City has probably been shut 15 - 20 years... I could be wrong, but don't remember it being open when I was a teenager, only when I was a kid.

[Ted Max]

They must have foreseen the arrival of the Sea Cow, and the closure of the police stables, and got out while they still could.

[Jah Lush]

Finally popped into the Sea Cow for the very first time on Friday afternoon where I had Haddock and Chips and mushy peas washed down with a very nice bottle of Macon Village. Very nice indeed, couldn't eat all of the chips but polished off the vino no problem. Will definitely be going back soon as I want to try their Red snapper and Sea Bass.

[giggirl]

Just had the worst dinner at Sea Cow. We sat at the very far corner near the back wall. It was early evening (6.30) so we had the table to ourselves. All during dinner flies were circling around us. It began to be a real pain swatting them away. Anyway, in the middle of dinner my friend said "just turn round and look" and I did, and it was like that scene in Hitchcock's The Birds with all the big black birds in the playground; the wall behind me was just covered with flies. We got up immediately and left. I told the waitress why we were leaving and said we would pay for the food but not the wine because we had hardly touched it and were hardly going to linger with all the flies buzzing around. She responded "Oh yes I know about the flies in that corner".

That's it for me - I'll never set foot in the place again.

[Jeremy]

Minging!