Growing up in a household where both parents were children of Italian immigrants, you would think we'd know about the feast of the seven fishes. My mom and grandmothers never made such a thing. As a matter of fact, we really never heard of it until I was an adult and read about it in a magazine. I was in my late 20s, a new homeowner and wanted to impress my family with the "feast" on Christmas Eve.
We did some research and found a pretty good list of what went into a traditional feast of the seven fishes. There was eel and smelts and baccala. These were things that almost no one in the family liked, so I tried to Americanize the menu a bit and even included New England clam chowder to get to seven.
