Fish Friday 2012 #1: St. George

Found it.

Welcome back to the first Fish Fryday post of 2012! Around December I get to wondering how much longer until it’s Fish Fry season. This year it really seemed to fly on by.

Unfortunately, the Fish Fry Finder wasn’t up and running for me when I needed it to be, so I decided to head to an old place I frequented back in the before time when I lived in Affton, St. George. When I used to live in a house named after a German Scientist, I made the mistake once of walking all the way up there in some pretty wicked winds. I learned after that, drive up.  The people there were always nice and one of the volunteers always commented on my hockey jerseys…so that was nice.

Well, I’d have to say that I have not been to St. George in at least 5 years. I realized Friday afternoon that our family tradition of fish fry hopping in Lent is now in its fourth year, and third year on the blog. As someone who’s been in transition for most of his life, things like this are very nice. I think I’m now done waxing nostalgic, at least for a little while. Let’s get on to the fish fry.

We arrived around 5:45pm, nearly two full hours after they had begun serving for the day. I was pretty pleased that the line didn’t seem to be all that ridiculous. After the four of us stood in line for a bit, we were informed by someone in our line that we were in the wrong line, because we had yet to pay.

Well what will I have?

So, we had to move over to a different line, go through that one, purchase a beer for the wait, then order and pay at the end of this line and then had to trek back to the end of the first line we had been waiting in.

I suppose it doesn’t really sound like that big of a deal, but the corridor there isn’t exactly the size of those at the Scottrade Center and we now have  a walking baby that has yet to have learned the mores of walking in public. So, I’d suggest moving your payment table to right inside of the cafeteria.

We now began to wait for our food in earnest. We were a bit disheartened to find that the line, that originally didn’t look all that long, seemed to be a great deal longer now. When we were standing in the line right outside, we didn’t see the full extent of the line, but we had already paid and were going wait it out no matter how long it took.

Dinner!

For my dinner, I chose a piece of fried catfish, mostaccioli, and a bit of mac and cheese. The first year I started blogging about the the fish frys, I noticed that I could never get catfish because everyone was always out of catfish by the time we arrived. (As I’ve said many times on the internets, but maybe not here: I work in Chesterfield, live in South City, and it’s hard to round up all three generations of the family and then head out. 6pm is usually about the earliest we can arrive if the place is close.) I also saw when we got to the serving area that they had shrimp and plenty of fried catfish fillets.

After I had done all of the running for condiments, tartar sauce, lemons, etc, I sat down and surveyed my meal. This year, if I see it, I’m going to have to avoid any hot sauces, as my daughter is over a year old and has some teeth, so she’s sharing our meals as well, and I think hot sauce is probably best left till 18 months anyway.

Why is the fish all curly?

After dousing my fish in lemon juice, I bit into it and I was in heaven. The fish was very warm and very tasty. I almost only eat fried fish during Lent and I cannot remember the last fried catfish I ate, so I savored the first bite of this piece of fish. The family stared at me, as I wasn’t talking for a change. I simply said this fish is excellent.

My mostaccioli did leave a bit to be desired as it had no cheese. It was just the pasta along with a very sweet red sauce on it. The mac and cheese very good and anybody who comes to St. George should get some of that. My daughter ate a goodly chunk of my mac and cheese as well as some of my fish.  I suppose the only part of my meal that I was really disappointed by was the beer selection. I know I’m not the normal south city beer drinker, but I love it when they have some better beers than Bud, Light, and Select.

To sum up, my fish was excellent, as was one of my sides. The other was ok, but not great. There was also a goodly sized amount of choice in the sides, but no french fries. The beer selection was disappointing, but my standards there are higher than the normal fare. I also think they could do a bit better in terms of their organization to make it easier for people to get in and get out. The people there were very friendly and seemed to get a kick out of my little daughter walking out and waving to everyone she saw, but I must impartially and objectively say, she’s  quite adorable and very much a charmer.