Now and again I want a perfectly medium-rare ribeye, but for the most part, I look to fish when I’m dining out and I cook it at home a lot because it’s so easy to do. Maybe you prefer steak, but you’re eating fish for Lent. Good for you.

I love it. It’s the perfect protein for a nice sauce, it’s better for us than red meat (even good for us, though watch the sauces and the battered stuff), and it tastes great. At least to many of us. I know there are folks who don’t like fish at all. To them I say:

Even fried?

Now open, Dory has the city’s sole tasting-only menu

There are some quintessential Southern foods. There’s barbecue, pimento cheese, fried chicken, banana pudding and fried catfish. I like ’em all, but fried catfish is my favorite. Luckily, you can get it all over town and here are just a few places where it’s killer.

I always order fried catfish when I go to Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking, 326 S. Cleveland. Always. It’s never let me down, and Peggy Brown’s vegetables are at the top of my list among all the meat-and-threes in this town, from her greens to her white beans to her mashed potatoes. Folks tell me her yams are just dandy, but that’s a Southern food I leave alone. That leaves more for you.

Two unlikely places to find good catfish are Corky’s Bar-B-Q (multiple locations) and Leonard’s Pit Barbecue, 5465 Fox Plaza Drive. There’s no real secret to good catfish: It has to be clean, has to have a crisp cornmeal batter, and has to be served hot. These places hit the mark, and they also score points for offering something besides barbecue at barbecue restaurants.

At Leonard’s — and yes, it’s for sale and fingers are crossed all over town that an angel is going to swoop in and save this place — even the catfish on the buffet stayed crisp and fresh. But now there’s no buffet, so you order from the menu, and remember that it’s only open from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. daily. Corky’s are all over town and they sell a ton of catfish, because they do it right, too. See for yourself.

Heartbreaker! I texted Soul Fish co-owner Raymond Williams when I didn’t see the thin and crispy catfish on the online menu, texted hoping that someone made a mistake. Sadly, no mistake. It’s gone. The thin catfish is sliced by a machine at Pride of the Pond, Soul Fish’s catfish purveyor, and it’s broken. There is no thin and crispy, at least not now.

Area’s oldest barbecue restaurant is on the market

But there is excellent catfish at all area locations, and the fried okra is the best in town (Soul Fish, which has four locations, and McEwen’s are neck and neck, but McEwen’s is closed right now). The pickled green tomatoes, the white beans — order what you like and you’ll be happy, but I’m just sayin’: I sure hope you like fried okra.

Shrimp is a fish, too, and here’s something I don’t tell you about often enough: That barbecue shrimp on the menu at The Second Line, 2144 Monroe? You can get it in a po’ boy. It’s not in print, but because you stay informed, you know it’s on the secret menu.

It is hands-down the messiest sandwich in town, but lawdy, lawdy. The po’ boy loaf is sliced open at one end, hollowed out, and the shrimp, along with its sublime spicy sauce, is ladled in.

Eat it however you can, but pro tip: Don’t cut it in half. You can pick it up with both hands and start at the open end, or you can knife-and-fork it. But if you have two open ends, you lose options. You can call me after you eat this if you want, because everyone likes to hear “I love you.”

Sushi also counts, and if you’re eating it, why not go over the top? You can do that many places, but Sakura, 4840 Poplar Ave. and 2060 West St. in Germantown, has been my place for Sunday sushi for years, COVID year excluded. Last week, my sushi partner Michael Donahue and I were back at it, and we went for the fried and the crunchies: Joyce roll and Pickwick. We had a more virtuous mango roll in there too, but when you’ve broken tradition for a year, that’s a good reason to go big.

Yes, this is about fish, but do you like Guinness? It goes well with fish and chips, and for that matter, so does Irish whiskey. Celtic Crossing, 903 Cooper, serves up fish and chips daily and they’re good, though I won’t touch the peas, mushy or whole. Just move them off your plate if you’re on team #nopeasplease, like me. The fish batter is light and makes extra crunchy bits, the fries (the chips) are very good, and it’s one of the most hospitable places in town.

I started this week in a new way, and I’m going to make it a habit. We could call it Making Mondays Marvelous, Magic Monday Makeover, or just Monday lunch, but what a great thing to do: Plan a nice lunch for Monday and start the week off right.

My Favorite Things: Warm apple purse at River Oaks

I went to River Oaks Restaurant, 5871 Poplar Avenue, which has a fabulous fish special daily, and ordered the TV dinner. It also changes daily, but it’s always four things on a “tray.” I had a fresh salad dressed simply with red pepper aioli, a lovely piece of red snapper in lemon beurre blanc, perfect little green beans served under a rice croquette, and a pear dumpling.

It was a smash hit with me, and listen, José Gutierrez and his folks know how to cook fish. Look on Facebook or Instagram to find the specials of the day, and get in there and eat your poisson.

But if Margarita Monday is more your thing, well, I can help you there, too (and keep in mind that you can also do this on a Friday). Maybe you’ve already been to Tequila Town, 3967 Summer Ave., and discovered the torre de mariscos. (If you have, well, thanks for telling me about it. Ahem.)

It’s a magnificent mix of ceviche — octopus, shrimp, fish — with cucumber, onion, avocado, pickled carrots and diced pepino melon dressed in a spicy and tangy, slightly tomato-y sauce. It comes with saltines and if you want, with oysters on the half shell. It’s also incredibly big; take a friend and share it, or go hungry.

And by the way, fried crappie is really my favorite Southern food, but as that’s a game fish, you can’t get it in a restaurant around here. If you know of a place within day-trip distance that serves it, let me know.