What's the point of Falsha Fish?

kiryat sefer

Thu, Apr 06 2017, 7:59 am

agreer wrote:

No, I am familiar with the minhag not to eat fish - my family doesn't. I know that the fish used to be soaked in chometz.

My family never, ever did "falshe fish". What is the point of eating something that LOOKS like fish?

If it's an alternative to fish - okay, why not just eat chicken? Why make it look like fish?

So far, the Chassidish thing - to have holy thoughts - seems to be the best answer, but the farfel question was good!

I also heard that it was soaked in a chametz solution.
But its not a chasidish minhag because I don't do it, rather its a Hungarian minhag.

PinkFridge

Thu, Apr 06 2017, 8:45 am

myself wrote:

Is the falsha fish eaten with dips like fish?

To the poster that mentioned that it could be eaten with dairy by mistake -- I doubt that would be a problem as I presume that most of the people who eat falsha fish don't eat fish with dairy anyway, so even if they mistook it for fish it wouldn't be a problem. Besides, it probably doesn't taste like fish either.

I don't think they did dips in the heim Wink

pause

Thu, Apr 06 2017, 8:50 am

PinkFridge wrote:

I don't think they did dips in the heim Wink

No dips, but chrein yes.

Raisin

Thu, Apr 06 2017, 8:52 am

ariellabella wrote:

I'm surprised this is a thing. I wonder if anyone considered the chance that someone might mistake it for actual fish and serve it with dairy.

No one who does this would dream of eating a dairy meal on yom tov, any more then going to macdonalds and ordering a burger.

Raisin

Thu, Apr 06 2017, 8:54 am

kiryat sefer wrote:

It's a Hungarian minhag to eat / make falsha fish. The source of it, is that back in the day the fish to be kept fresh they kept a piece of bread in the mouth of the fish.
If you think about it, why is kitniyus assur? Potatoe starch cakes look way more like a real chametz cake? Its a mesorah.
Enjoy making falsha fish.

if potatoes would have been around when they made the kitnios gezera Im sure they would be included too.

5mom

Thu, Apr 06 2017, 9:13 am

Raisin wrote:

if potatoes would have been around when they made the kitnios gezera Im sure they would be included too.

The Chayei Adam (late 18th to early 19th century Poland and Lithuania) actually tried to have potatoes declared kitniyos. The community refused. They more or less said that if they couldn't have potatoes on Pesach, they'd starve. And that was that.

Btw, my grandmother made falshe fish. I have no idea why, but it was delicious.

finallyamommy

Sat, Apr 08 2017, 5:33 pm

Regarding the worry about eating falshe fish with dairy, I think it's legit. I remember having it served to me at a shaloshudos once, and the host reminded me not to have a dairy melave malka, and I was really grateful for the reminder, because I totally would have forgotten.

rowo

Sat, Apr 08 2017, 9:06 pm

It's not a custom we keep, but my grandmother from Hungary did say her parents didn't eat fish on pesach.
We run a communal Seder and the person who catered it one year wanted to use his family recipe for falshe fish for the fish course.
It was really good! So good that people thought it was fish.
There was one vegetarian (who ate fish) that got quite upset though. They ate chicken without realising it!

justmarried

Sat, Apr 08 2017, 9:36 pm

My mil is viznitz, and somehow she kept that minhag of eating falshe fish. I happen to hate gefilta fish, but the falshe fish is delicious. As previously mentioned it is similar to a chicken meatball, but is cooked the same way gefilta fish is (water, sugar, carrot...)

Ours does not look at all like gefilta fish. It is formed into balls. Gefilta fish is a total different shape, and a different texture.

sourstix

Sat, Apr 08 2017, 11:17 pm

I grew up with false fish. The point of making it taste like gefilte is that you wAnt to eat fish but can't so it kind of helps by making it sweet. I never liked it. There are definitely different ways of making it. Like salty instead of sweet many like it that way. For me- no! I don't like it.

mommy3b2c

Sat, Apr 08 2017, 11:27 pm

kiryat sefer wrote:

I also heard that it was soaked in a chametz solution.
But its not a chasidish minhag because I don't do it, rather its a Hungarian minhag.

Could be, but I'm from a very Hungarian family and we keep none of these minhagim. We eat everything except gebrokst.

cnc

Sat, Apr 08 2017, 11:33 pm

mommy3b2c wrote:

Could be, but I'm from a very Hungarian family and we keep none of these minhagim. We eat everything except gebrokst.

I also come from a Hungarian family and only heard of this recently.

Laiya

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 12:09 am

PinkFridge wrote:

I'm an almost thoroughbred Litvak (chassidishe line dormant) but I get it. I remember someone very eloquently explaining why farfel is a must Friday night, and while I don't do it (and did for that one Shabbos guest) I think it's nice.

Of course this begs the question, then why not falshe farfel. Ok, gebrochts, but I think a more likely answer is that there is a lot in the literature, aged literature predating chassidus, about basar v'dagim. (Think Yosef Mokir Shabbos.)

What's special about farfel?

PinkFridge

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 4:08 pm

justmarried wrote:

When I was growing up we used to get our gefilte fish from a caterer. They made it in big balls.

PinkFridge

Sun, Apr 09 2017, 4:08 pm

Laiya wrote:

What's special about farfel?

Something about all our worries falling away. We need a chassidiste here to explain it properly.

WastingTime

Thu, Apr 13 2017, 3:36 pm

While looking for some recipes I saw this thread and had such a laugh. My husband's Hungarian grandmother used to make it and I always wondered why in the world make chicken for the fish course and why would you want to make fake gefilte fish- almost seemed backwards- but the funniest part of it was that we never went there on Pesach, she made it during the year!
Interesting to know there was some custom involved in it!