fish for breakfast
When we were in Ireland, I had a breakfast that included the wonderful Irish oak smoked salmon. In this country you can get this same type of cold smoked salmon at the supermarket from Nova Scotia, Scotland, Norway, and other places. As I have been doing this this month I have come across a lot of different types of breakfast but none have included fish.
One of my favorite passages from the Bible comes from the Gospel of St. John. After the Resurrection, the Apostles are out fishing and they see a man on the shore. First, the man tells them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. This is a repeat of an earlier miracle by Jesus. They bring in a catch of 153. (The site What do the Scriptures Say? has an essay on this number.) When they finally come ashore:
… they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. (John 21:9-14)
I have been on camping trips where someone gets up early, goes to the stream, catches a few trout and brings them back and cook them up for breakfast. We do lots of different things when we camp out … sleep in a tent to start with. That’s sort of out of the ordinary for us but maybe not for First Century Galileans.
And I know that a common breakfast among particularly in Jewish section of New York City includes bagels and lox. Lox is salmon fillet that has been cured, not smoked. If you get a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon, it’s not bagel and regular or belly lox. Because the cold smoked salmon mentioned above are cured before smoking, they are sometimes referredt o as lox, particularly the Nova Scotia salmon which is called Nova lox.
There is another cuisine in America where fish for breakfast is common. Soul Food.
Soul Food is associated with Southern Black culture but is also found in many American cities. It is really closely connected with Southern cuisine but gained the name “Soul Food” during the 1960s when anything associated with African American culture was tagged as “soul, ” as in soul music. Actually, a Black co-woorker went out to lunch with me one day and insisted I try soul food. Being ignorant of the facts, I went along, expecting chitterlings (chilttlin’s) and pig’s knuckles. Oh they were there, but the rest of the menu read like Sunday dinner. Fried chicken, ham, green beans, boiled greens (with a ham hock tossed in for flavor). So what was the big deal?
The breakfast menu featured greasy eggs (yes that’s what they were called) and fried catfish. (Also fried chicken and pork chops and greens … hey wait a minute, that looked a lot like the dinner menu!) But there it was Catfish for breakfast.
A traditional Japanese breakfast consists of steamed rice, miso soup, and various side dishes. Common side dishes are broiled/grilled fish, tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), onsen tamago, tsukemono pickles, seasoned nori (dried seaweed), natto, and so on. So in Japan, you can also expect fish on your breakfast table.
So while we might not regularly consider fish having a proper place at the breakfast table, it has a sound background in our culture. And doctors tell us that fish oil is an excellent source of omega-3 which is essential for its antioxidants which helps with cholesterol control.
So, enjoy fish for breakfast. And not just because it’s what Jesus would do. Do it because it’s good for you.
