Rent Parties and Fried Fish During the Depression

Fried fish, hush puppies, fries, and tartar sauce

To make ends meet during the Depression some African Americans turned to strategies like throwing rent parties. On a Saturday night during the Depression, one could always find buffet-flats, rent parties, whist parties, and dances, where, for a small fee, one could purchase down-home food and dance to good music. Langston Hughes recalled: The Saturday night rent parties that I attended were often more amusing than any night club, in small apartments where God knows who lived—because the guests seldom did—but where the piano would often be augmented by a guitar, or an odd cornet, or somebody with a pair of drums walking in off the street. And where . . . good fried fish or steaming chitterling were sold at very low prices. This is the last post in a series I been doing on fish, I’d love to get some feedback on the stories and recipes and please share your own fish stories and or recipes from your own families. Here is a recipe for southern fried fish and hush puppies

Fried fish and hush puppy recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=346878