On Fridays we eat fish – at least we do in our household and, as it seems so many others do the same. For example, over a quarter of all fish and chips eaten in the UK are sold on a Friday.

What is the association of fish with Friday? As someone brought up as a Roman Catholic the answer is easy. Jesus died on Good Friday and the church decided to commemorate this by cutting out any meat dishes on that weekday. Moreover, there is a symbolic association between Christ and fish. The Greek word for fish, “ichthys”, was turned by Christians into an acrostic: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour and the fish was used as an indication that there was a Christian congregation nearby as is especially seen if one visits a Roman catacomb.

The king of England, Henry VIII, with his great schism from Rome removed the importance of eating fish on Friday as he disliked the Romish connection of this custom. However, in more recent years, thanks also to advertising campaigns from the UK’s leading supermarkets, fish Friday has come back into fashion in the UK.

For me it did not matter too much being cut off from visiting the fish fry boats of Viareggio because of the harsh winter weather. After two days of snow and sleet, blue skies and crisp air announced a very special fish Friday for me. I decided to use the ample layer of snow on our outside table to prepare a slightly frugal but still delicious fish lunch. At least the fish was frozen fresh!

The first course consisted of prawn in mayonnaise sauce.

The second course introduced salmon, with lettuce condiment and lemon juice.

The third course was a tuna, tomato puree and caper (our own capers) mix.

All this was served with our home-baked bread and a bottle of Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

Desert consisted of a Ferrero Rocher chocolate which I like to call an Auroville mini-mandir because of its similarity to the religious building in the centre of south India’s Auroville where we stayed just four years ago. (Of course, there was no snow on the tables there!).

My meal is no longer to be called a rustic variant of ‘nouvelle cuisine’ but is a completely different type of eating experience coming under the title of ‘cuisine neigeuse’. La cuisine neigeuse should always be served on a table well-coated with snow to preserve the freshness of the food and excite the eating experience

Just a word of warning. Ensure that no felines are lurking about as they too enjoy a fish meal!

Finally, every good square meal should be rounded with a sunlit siesta in order to avoid that flat feeling…