Lent season brings out top seafood in El Paso: fish fry, lentils and capirotada

Maria Cortes Gonzalez, El Paso Times

The Lenten season may be about sacrifices, but not necessarily about sacrificing great seafood.

During Lent in El Paso, many faithful enjoy their mother's homemade offerings, from lentils and fish soup to capirotada. But if she no longer cooks or is around, you may find yourself looking for some spots to get those Lenten staples.

In El Paso, you can find many Mexican restaurants that offer a Lenten menu on Fridays, and seafood places get a little extra love and attention during this season. And with a steady supply of crab restaurants, Catholics observing Lent can also abstain from meat, enjoying some Cajun boils, including potatoes and corn.

The Lent season, 40 days of fasting and prayer for Catholics, will end on the Thursday before Easter, known as Holy Thursday. It falls on March 28.

Here are some places to enjoy seafood.

Martita's Lunch Box has a Lent special

During Lent, Martita's Lunch Box, at 3623 Buckner St., offers a whole slew of choices including lentil soup, fried fish with rice, baked potato and salad ($10.50), shrimp cocktails, tostadas de ceviche ($9.99), and capirotada (traditional Lenten bread pudding for $7.25).

Martita's Lunch Box, 3623 Buckner, offers a comida corrida or lunch special on Fridays for Lent. Options include fried fish.
Martita's Lunch Box, 3623 Buckner, offers a comida corrida or lunch special on Fridays for Lent. Options include fried fish.

Diners can also choose the Comida Corrida which is the Lent special for $9.99 plus tax. The special starts at 11 a.m. on Fridays until gone. The meal comes with a fish or lentil soup, and a choice of Tortitas de Camaron (shrimp patties), fried fish, enchiladas or guacamole tostadas.

Dia de los Pescados

The fish tacos ($8) from Dia de los Pescados food truck are crunchy, with beer-battered fish and cabbage slaw.
The fish tacos ($8) from Dia de los Pescados food truck are crunchy, with beer-battered fish and cabbage slaw.

The seafood restaurant at 1491 Lee Trevino Drive has seafood year-round but is well-prepared for Lent with the best Baja California fish and shrimp tacos. Or try a flavorful Po'Boy, shrimp fries or handmade jumbo coconut shrimp.

The food truck also is still operating so check it out from 6 to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 2200 Zaragoza Road.

Crazy Crab, Fountains at Farah

El Chuco, $23, at Crazy Crab, is a boil with 1/2 pound of snow crab legs and half a pound of shrimp with one corn and one potato.
El Chuco, $23, at Crazy Crab, is a boil with 1/2 pound of snow crab legs and half a pound of shrimp with one corn and one potato.

For something a little more adventurous, try Crazy Crab, at the Fountains at Farah. Another location is at 1188 N. Yarbrough Drive.

You can select what seafood - from clams, green and black mussels, to shrimp, scallops, King crab, snow crab, lobster tail, and crawfish to calamari and blue crab and Dungeness crab - you want in the boil. And then, you choose a sauce, such as Cajun, garlic butter, lemon pepper, mixed, and the heat level.

One of our favorites is El Chuco, $23, a boil with 1/2 pound of snow crab legs and half a pound of shrimp with one corn and one potato, in a buttery garlic sauce and medium spice.

Cafe Mayapan brings Lent menu on Fridays

Cafe Mayapan, 2000 Texas Ave., adds a Lent menu starting Wednesday, Feb. 14. The Lent specials will be offered from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Friday.

The menu has lentils, Chacales and fish soup, tortitas de camaron with nopales (shrimp patties with cactus), tostadas with black beans and nopalitos (with fish soup, $7.99), fish a la Veracruzana, $9.99, and fish tacos with mango salsa ($10.99).

Fish Fry in Horizon City

The Oz Glaze Senior Center will have the Liars Club Annual Fish Fry from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 9 at 13969 Veny Webb. Tickets are $10, available at the door, and include fish.

What do people give up for Lent

Many Catholics give up something they like to eat or drink, such as chocolate or sodas, as part of their observance for Lent.

The Catholic Extension Organization, however, makes suggestions that do not involve food.

Here are five suggestions of not just giving up something but aiming to do better.

  • Give up bitterness; turn to forgiveness.

  • Give up hatred; return good for evil.

  • Give up negativism; be positive.

  • Give up complaining; be grateful.

  • Give up pessimism; be an optimist.

More: When is Lent? Details to know about fasting; Ash Wednesday and Easter dates

María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@elpasotimes.com, @EPTMaria on Twitter; eptmariacg on TikTok.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Lent 2024 in El Paso, where to get fish fry, lentils and capirotada

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