I just saw an article that incited in me an atavistic fear and loathing. What was it that left me trembling and whimpering? Fish sticks. The very name brings back childhood horrors. Long ago, in the dark ages before the Internet, I was in (what we now call) middle school. On most Fridays—in deference to Catholics who weren’t allowed meat on Fridays—we were served the abomination called fish sticks. They actually made me gag but the teachers insisted we eat them.
It never occurred to me that anyone actually liked them. I always considered them just another way for the school system to torture their students. But the article says that fish sticks are beloved by many and tolerated by many more. I would have been surprised to find anyone who would admit to even tolerating them. Some people say, apparently, that you can almost pretend they aren’t fish. If only that were true. For the record, I like seafood but fish sticks don’t qualify.
It turns out that fish sticks were invented to solve a problem. Stronger motors and bigger boats back in the 50s meant that there were too much fish being caught to sell quickly so they started skinning, deboning, and freezing it on the boats. That raised the question of how to sell the frozen fish. After a series of failed experiments, they settled on fish sticks, which did surprising well. The article has other curious facts about fish sticks. If, like me, you have a complicated history with them, you might enjoy the article. As for me, I’m just glad that I don’t have to choose between starving and letting a single crumb of fish stick pass my lips.