On Fridays during Lent the American Legion Post 39 in North St. Paul is offering an "All You Can Eat Fish Fry" that starts at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon and lasts until 8:00 p.m. in the evening. The meal is served with french fries and coleslaw. The price is only $8.50 for this meal.
The fish is pollock. Atlantic pollock is considered to be a white fish, according to wikipedia. Pollock is a traditionally popular source of food in Norway. In the United Kingdom, pollock is largely consumed as an economic and versatile alternative to cod and haddock. In recent years, pollock has become popular in the United States and can now be found in most supermarkets as fresh fillets or prepared freezer items. In Germany, the fish is salted and smoked to achieve a salmon like orange color and is commonly sold as sea salmon.
"The secret to a good tasty fish dinner is it needs to be served hot," said Tom, the bar manager at the American Legion in North St. Paul, "So that's what we do. We make sure every fish dinner we serve here is nice 'n hot!"
According to Tom, "We here at the Legion talked to a lot of people and asked them what they thought made a good tasting fish dinner, and they said that some places over-spice the fish by over-spicing the batter. Here at the Legion we planned our batter recipe to be the right combination so that it's not too spicy, but tasty, with the right amount of beer batter."
Tom and his co-workers at the American Legion in North St. Paul have the right ideas when it comes to serving a tasty fish fry, as I had the pleasure to find out for myself when I attended the first Friday fish fry there for the Lent season. "We will be having the Friday night fish fry starting the first Friday in Lent and will be having it all during Lent and maybe longer after that," Tom said.
I hope they do continue to have the fish fry after Lent, because I found it to be excellent! The fish had the perfect amount of beer batter - not too thick. Speaking of beer, I found the glass of tap Miller Lite beer I had at the bar while waiting for my fish fry order to be refreshingly cold and clean tasting. It was also refreshing that the glass of beer was only $1. The Bloody Mary that I saw the bartender making just a bit away from in front of me at the bar looked really appealing and I was already making plans in my head to come back soon and order one of those.
Just as the fish in the fish fry basket was great, so are the fixings that come with it. The french fries were the perfect crispiness with a slightly battered texture. The coleslaw is excellent with a nice cool temperature, not too sweet or too sour; just right and fresh tasting.
And just as refreshing as the tap beer, was to see the bar full of people. All the tables in the bar area, and there are a lot of them just see the picture on these American Legion pages, were full of people laughing and talking and eating fish and I overheard many of them saying that they thought the fish was really good. There were people enjoying themselves playing some of the bar games in the corner and the band was arriving and setting up for the live show entertainment for the evening. As busy as it was, the bartender and wait staff service were fast, efficient, friendly and likeable. I like how even though they were busy with filling all the orders for fish they were getting, they still asked in a nice way if I wanted seconds on my fish order.
Another thing that made my experience at the American Legion enjoyable on a Friday night is that even though there were a lot of people in the place, I was able to find a good parking spot right away in the large parking lot adjacent to the front door. In addition to the main parking lot, there is also parking on the street in front of the Legion and an extra parking lot across the street for Legion patron use as well.
(Update: Today is Friday the 13th of March and I am bringing a friend with me tonight and we will be at the Legion for the fish fry, beer and Bloody Marys. My first experience with their fish fry I was in a hurry and didn't get to have seconds on the all you can eat fish, but it was so good the time before that I sure am looking forward to having all I can eat tonight, including seconds. See you there!)
Update: Saturday, March 14, 2009. I did go to the Friday Fish Fry for the second time last night and I did get to order seconds, even thirds, with my friend. I did order a beer, as well as the Bloody Mary for my second drink. My first beer can in a plastic cup and was still cold and fresh tasting. My second beer came in a tall glass, which I prefer to the plastic. I asked the waitress what determines whether a person is served their beer in a plastic cup or a glass container and she said it depends on how busy they are. Sometimes they run out of glassware and have to use plastic cups if they get really busy. The Bloody Mary was spicy and came with a large pickled green pepper, which I really like. One thing that I found out about the All You Can Eat Fish Fry that I really really like is that when I ordered more fish and asked for more fries and coleslaw also, the waitress gladly said yes and brought back two newly made baskets of the fish fry for my friend and I. Some places that I have been to that have all you can eat deals only give the customer the main meat of the meal and not the fixings that come with the meal the first time. I prefer to have the fixings with my meal, whether with the first order or subsequent orders. I like the way they do it at the American Legion in North St. Paul.