Lent is serious time for many, but I’d like to focus on a more light-hearted aspect of the period before Easter: the food.

Since many people give up meat, they’ll be seeking out fish. Plenty of restaurants have special dishes. More on that in a minute.

But first, can we throw out some kudos to the people preparing the often stinky fish? From the chef to the bus boy, many of these hard-working people come home smelling like fish so bad that I bet they don’t get hello kisses from their loved ones.

I used to be one of those stinky people. In high school, I worked at a roadside hamburger and ice cream stand back East. Friday night fish fry customers packed out the restaurant during Lent.

And even though I spent the evening scooping ice cream at the walk-up window at the other end of the restaurant, I always came home reeking of fish.

I still remember the end of my first fish-fry shift, plopping down on my couch at home, exhausted, for a quick bite to eat before showering. I still smelled of fish. There’s nothing more horrific as a teenage girl than pulling your pony tail around to your nose and realizing the stench is coming from your hair. Of course, my clothes, even my skin, carried the smell.

I told this story to Central Fish Co. manager Morgan Doizaki, who knew exactly what I was talking about.

"That’s me every day," he says.

So be kind to those restaurant workers serving you fish over the next few weeks. They’ve got their own kind of sacrifices going on during Lent.

If you’re looking for a place to get a good fish dish, Fresno has several options.

Central Fish has daily specials during Lent, ranging from fresh catfish or sea bass to a shrimp and crab cocktail. The restaurant portion of the business, at 1535 Kern St., is open from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sundays and can be reached at (559) 237-2049.

The Elbow Room usually has six to eight seafood options on the menu, but it adds a new one each day during Lent.

Sal’s Mexican restaurant has a Lent menu on Fridays, but you can order the dishes any day of the week. The most popular dish is the Camarones a la Diabla, eight to 12 grilled shrimp served with a chipotle sauce, beans and rice.

Other dishes on the menu include a basa fish taco trio, a prawn-tequila lime salad, ceviche tostadas and a basa fish dinner with a filet dipped in adoba sauce and pan seared to a crisp.

Yard House restaurant at River Park is promoting its vegetarian dishes, which it carries all year. Most are made with Gardein, a brand of plant-based foods with the taste and texture of lean meat.

Marie Callender’s has a special Lent menu. Long John Silver’s brought back its thick-cut cod and has introduced a bigger type of shrimp. And McDonald’s, of course, is promoting its fish McBites.

If you want to try out a new local restaurant where you can get seafood every day, the Crackin’ Claw recently opened next to Vons at First Street and Nees Avenue.

It’s a Cajun and Creole, New Orleans-style restaurant. You can get whole Dungeness crab, whole lobster, crawfish, shrimp and mussels. The seafood is served two ways: boiled in the Cajun style or served with a Creole roux — a white sauce.

The restaurant also serves a New Orleans po’ boy sandwich, gumbo and jambalaya. There are a few chicken dishes for those who don’t want seafood.

Something fun that’s not on the menu but you can still order: The "big bag combo." This giant bowl of seafood — it wouldn’t fit in a bag — includes crab legs, mussels, crawfish, whole potatoes and chunks of corn on the cob. It serves about five people.

This is a place where you can eat with your fingers, and it’s not uncommon to dump the seafood onto the paper-covered table.

Two sinks in the dining area are available for diners who need to clean up.

If you get a chance to talk to the owners or the chef, you’ll meet some interesting people.

One partner, Vicki Lugue, is a local real estate agent who also acts in commercials and has done some modeling. She sings on Saturday nights on the restaurant’s little stage.

The other owner is Efren Evangelista, a former architect who is into martial arts and runs the Angry Asian restaurant — once called the Manila Grill — next door.

The chef, Roy Mendoza, is a young guy from the Philippines who was trained in Italy.

Crackin’ Claw is open 3-10 p.m. daily. It doesn’t have a website yet, but you can reach the restaurant at (559) 438-0124.