From A to Z- Amazing Fish Fries In Central New York You Need To Try

The Lenten season has officially kicked off in the Mohawk Valley, Central New York, and Upstate. Need a fish fry? We laid out a delicious map A to Z.

What Is Lent?

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lent is a 40 day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter.

Why Do People Eat Fish On Friday’s During Lent?

Why is their so many fish fries, fried chicken, and pretty much everything except meat being served? If you do a simple web search you stumble on several reasons for why the church embraces this discipline during lent. Some say it's a tradition that dates back hundreds of years, while others think the church was trying to support the fishing industry when times were tough. So what exactly is the true answer?

This tradition started happening around the second century of Christianity. Christians started to avoid eating meat on Friday as a kind of "sacrifice and reminder that acknowledged Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross." History books begin to show an increase of fasting on Friday's to commemorate this sacrifice as early as the first century. Some people would fast the entire day, other's would choose to fast certain meals. This is how fish starts to swim it's way into the picture."

You can read more online here.

Where Should You Go Locally?

A large number of local restaurants are preparing to serve a lot of fish for six weeks. Most Central New Yorkers has their own personal favorite place to go get a fish fry, but have you ever thought about venturing out - and weren't sure where to start? No worries, we've got you covered.

We created a list based on Facebook reviews of some pretty amazing places to go grab a fish fry in the Utica area during Lent. Before the list is presented, it's important to point out that these are not the only places to go to grab an amazing fish fry - there's plenty of others. For the sake of not making you scroll for hours and hours, we picked one great spot per letter of the alphabet. This is laid out A to Z: