Fish Frydays 2011 #4: St. Mark’s

I'm still hungry...

Another week has passed and another fish dinner has been eaten. I would think it’s about time to begin recapping that.

This week we had all five of us going out again and we chose St. Marks on Morganford just outside of the City Limits in Affton, MO. This wasn’t the first time we’ve been into Affton…and I did live there for a few years before moving back into the City Proper, but it was our first trek outside of the City Limits for a fish fry of record…and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Churches aren’t like dives…they don’t seem to pop up all the time..so we’ll run out and have to go to the county. Might as well widen the search now right?

I haven’t been enjoying my fish as much this year as I have last year. I suppose my biggest complaint, aside from the poor beer selections, has been the fish at St. James. Well, was St. Marks any better?

The cafeteria.

We didn’t have any advanced knowledge of St. Marks. So we went in completely blind as to what they serve there.

Not surprisingly, they had fried and baked cod, along with a myriad of side dishes and the requisite fried shrimp. They were selling single and double piece fried cod meals along with a shrimp and cod combo meal. I stuck with my usual fried cod, as I’ve yet to have any fried shrimp at a fish fry that was anything to talk about…or anything that wasn’t directly out of a box.

The #1 beer in the world...

We met Bob there…he was at the County Library for some reason; he told me that they didn’t have any beer…just Bud Light. Well…I was pretty disappointed by this revelation. I was hoping for a nice Schlafly Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout, or any thing else…but that was dashed by Bud Light cans….

Oh well, it is what it is and obviously, I got a Bud Light…beer’s part of it.

I suppose if I really wanted a good Schlafly beer, I could just drink one of the Pale Ales I have in my fridge right? So, let’s get on to the main point of this post, fried fish.

Cod, hush puppies, and fries.

I chose the double cod meal with fries and hush puppies. The cod clearly came out of a box and both of my pieces of fish were the exact same shape and size….and they tasted about the same. Disappointing.

Sides.

One thing I can say about St. Marks, whereas they lack on choices of fish and beer, they certainly give the option of about six hundred different side dishes. Aside from the french fries, meatless spaghetti, hush puppies, and mac and cheese shown here on my wife’s plate, I remember they also had green beans and cole slaw. I think St. Marks has the most choices in terms of side dishes of any fish fry I’ve been to. Unfortunately, they also had one of the smallest selections of fish and beer.

Frozen fish.

I have to say that all in all this year, I’ve been pretty disappointed. Only one of the four so far  had anything other than bud and bud light beers. I had good fish at St. Gabes, and spectacular fish at St. Agathas, but St. James and St. Marks both greatly disappointed. There are still a couple more weeks of fish frys and I’m still hoping to find another place that at least comes close to St. Agatha’s, but considering how awesome that place was, I’m thinking that’s not terribly likely….

Before checking out, I want to give thanks to two veteran fish fry blogs that have recently taken notice of the silly things we do here. Thanks to the authors of  Friday Night Fish and No Meat For You. Thank you very much for noticing the goofiness of the 13 Blog.