Copycat Whaler with Homemade Tartar Sauce

This copycat from the 1980s and this Whaler is pretty much a dead ringer in flavors!


The secret is in the tartar sauce, and seriously, it makes the sandwich fabulous!


The BK food chain has a light and flaky 100% Alaskan Pollock fillet topped with a delicious creamy tartar sauce and shredded lettuce on the potato bun.


I used everything except for the same kind of fish.


Years ago, when it debuted in 1975, the Big Fish sandwich has changed and evolved using different fish, but the buns; however, that delicious tartar sauce has stayed the same in taste.


I made my sandwich with fried haddock, also a delicious white flaky fish, using my fish fry recipe.


If you love the Whaler, you're in for a homemade treat in less than 25 minutes!


I love copycat recipes like my  Beef and Cheddar, and I also have a roundup of Copycat Recipes to try!


I always order mine with a slice of cheese, which is extra, but I really like the fish better with cheese; you can omit that part if you're not big on that.


So my copycat version is really one that I love to make, and the tartar sauce if fantastic, it totally complements this sandwich.


You can use any frozen, premade brand of fish in the supermarket or make your own.


Don't forget to pick up some shoestrings French fries, or make a seasoned style like my Italian fries to go with this delicious fish sandwich.


It's really super simple and quick if you're using all store-bought brands and not all homemade like I did.

Italian Christmas Eve

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is part of the Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration, in Italy, it's not called a feast but it certainly is pretty much the same and they refer to this name as a "Grand Meal" for their Christmas celebration dinner.

Christmas Eve is a fasting day for any kind of meat, and only seafood is served (actually several kinds of fish is made on this day) as part of the menu.

This Italian Christmas Eve Tradition of no meat continues to stay true to an Italian American seafood feast we serve her in America.

The seafood is part of Catholic abstinence from eating meat until the feast of Christmas Day.

The "Grand Meal" (feast) consists of seven different seafood dishes and traditionally was started in Southern Italy, and known simply as The Vigil (La Vigilia).

This celebration was to wait and welcome the Vigilia di Natale, and the birth of baby Jesus.

The seafood for Roman Catholics typically is fried fish in oil and shellfish that they could afford and was freshly caught.

Among the fish were clams with pasta which we add to Cioppino which is a fish stew, a salted codfish called baccala being the most popular to serve which is a codfish in a tomato sauce or squid, white fish, and several others that were fried.

In some of the oldest Italian American families, there was no count of the number of fish dishes that were served this Christmas Eve night.

Fried smelts and other types of seafood like Calamari fried were introduced into the menu much later through the years on Christmas Eve.

Here is a sample of the most popular ones we make every year.

May you all have a blessed season upon and enjoy the Traditional we set forward to carry on with this Catholic Christmas Eve menu we made through the years.

Flounder Francese (Egg Coated Recipe)

Seafood was always a favorite in our home prepared like this Flounder Francese.


My mom's all-time favorite was anything Francese with fish or chicken and this was her easy recipe that I hold near and dear to my heart.


When she was still alive, she made this sauce and it was great on all kinds of white fish.


Usually, this was prepared and poured over cod or haddock.


Being, on a tight budget, those two fish were an inexpensive substitute for Flounder back in the 1960s.


We never had the money for a fancy fish like flounder in those days, she would surely have loved this delicate fish.


It was always cod or haddock and fabulous.


Cod baked or haddock fried was a staple back then every Friday, this style Francese was done on special occasions.


Sometimes mom would filet a chicken breast and use boneless chicken as well.


I make this recipe often in mom's memory and it never fails me, hopefully, if you are a seafood or chicken lover you will really enjoy this recipe as much as we do and keep her memory alive.


Scroll down to the recipe card to print this off.

Florida Rock Shrimp Boiled, Broiled, or Fried

Absolutely our favorite seafood here in Florida, these little gems taste a lot like lobster!

Florida Rock Shrimp is the perfect shellfish here.

Rock Shrimp are sweet and the best thing that's the closest taste to lobster.

Florida Rock Shrimp very different from regular shrimp.

Their bodies are rock hard when cooked and dipped in butter they taste like little lobster tails!

Dipped in herb butter just broiled after cleaning is my favorite way to serve these.

Feast of 7 Fishes Roundup

For many Catholic families, Christmas Eve is celebrated with very respectful traditions marked by deep faith, and the celebrations of the baby Jesus, along with a table filled entirely with several kinds of seafood.

This family tradition is famously known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes, is rooted in centuries-old Catholic practice and is especially popular with Italian-American households.

On this sacred night, Catholics traditionally abstain from eating any red meat,  only preparing a full Christmas Eve meal made exclusively with fish and seafood before attending Midnight Mass to welcome the birth of Christ.

Although the tradition is 7 Fishes, we usually have more than 7 with the medleys we serve in the meals, along with the Insalata Caprese and Italian Struffoli dessert.

Below are the links to the recipes highlighted by name.

Fish, Chicken or Veal Francese Recipe

Every Christmas Eve it's a tradition to make 7 kinds of fish and we usually have more varieties than that.

Since some folks have food allergies and can't eat fish mom would substitute eggplant on Christmas Eve since it was a tradition not to eat meat.

Otherwise, the oil will taste like fish and so will the Chicken. We were not disappointed with the fish, it was wonderful.

Every year we made the Francese sauce and you can actually use this for Chicken, Veals, Pork or even Venison during any weeknight meal, it's a delicious combination of lemon and wine.

Using all fresh ingredients including fish makes a gourmet delight and the recipe is really super simple with some other suggestions and a few additions, you can make an authentic dish from different Regions of Italy on your plates.

If you love lemon, white wine, and egg-coated meat, this will be your new favorite meal for any occasion.