Fish Stories at the NYPL Mulberry St. Branch

We’ve been really busy soliciting recipes and stories for the Fish Stories Community Cookbook. In the past few weeks we’ve held workshops or shown up to talk with people at the Hamilton-Madison House Senior Center, the fishing clinic at the Lower East Side Ecology Center, the P.S. 184 Shuang Wen School Summer Carnival Fundraiser, the after school program 2 Bridges Kids! at Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, the Loisaida Festival, Family Day at the Vladeck Houses, Weinberg Center for Balanced Living at the Manny Cantor Center, a performance at Pier 42 by Arm of the Sea Theater and, most recently, held a seafood recipe exchange at the Mulberry Street Branch of the New York Public Library.

Wow, we’ve met a lot of great people and received many great recipes. Talking to people one on one is much more effective than directing people to the forms on our website for soliciting recipes, as you might imagine. At yesterday’s recipe exchange Judy Hiller-Schwartz gave me recipes for Gravlox with Mustard Dill Sauce, Gifilte Fish and ‘Jewish Style’ Halibut “Creole.” She also told me about her trials and tribulations starting up a business making knishs. A favorite place of hers to buy fish in the Lower East Side is Rainbow Fish in Essex Market and she suggested talking to Ira.

A very special thanks to Sherri Machlin, the librarian who helped to organize, promote and champion the event. She has a book of her own – American Food by the Decades.