The fish fry faithful have spoken, and we can smell their onion breath.
Ahead of Lent last month, we asked readers how they feel about that slab of raw onion served atop a slice of rye bread as one of the local co-stars of a proper Wisconsin fish fry. Do they lick it up like they do every morsel of their perch or do they leave it on the plate like a kale garnish or a pickle?
A total of 338 people responded to our reader poll, proving that folks are passionate about their fish fry. Here are the results:
- Yum! Love both. It wouldn’t be a classic Wisconsin fish fry without it: 185 votes for 54.7%
- Usually eat the bread but always, always leave the onion: 100 votes for 29.6%
- Hard pass. I never touch either one: 26 votes for 7.7%
- Happily pawn off either one to the first willing taker at my table: 19 votes for 5.6%
- Call me crazy, but usually eat the onion but not the bread: 8 votes for 2.4%
At Maricque’s, they call onion and rye ‘a Belgian sandwich’
We turned to Green Bay’s oldest and one of its most popular fish fry places, Maricque’s Bar, to see what we could learn about the tradition of making room on the plate for bread and onion…