It is Wednesday, so I went up to Southlake today a little before noon.On my way back from my first stop in Southlake I went to Sprouts Farmers Market and got a lot of good stuff. I've never seen Sprouts so busy.
Were people stocking up for the upcoming return of winter with its possible Friday ice storm?
On the way back home, after Sprouts, I had been asked by an Anonymous Person to pick said person up at Tuckers Catfish Haven in North Richland Hills.
Why do so many people insist I not put their name in my blog? It perplexes me.
Anyway, I'd been in the Tuckers Catfish Haven parking lot previously. But I had not bothered to look at their sign. I read the sign today and was surprised to learn that in Tuckers Catfish Haven I could get the World's Best Catfish.
I added the apostrophe to World's. For some reason Tuckers does not seem to like apostrophes. It seems like it should be Tucker's Catfish Haven, not Tuckers Catfish Haver. And it should be World's Best, not Worlds Best.
Sorry about being an apostrophe Nazi.
I do not understand why catfish is so popular in these parts. There may be more catfish restaurants in the D/FW Metroplex than any other genre. Even BBQ. To my semi-refined tastebuds, catfish is, at best, flavorless, at worst you can bite into catfish that tastes like the mud the catfish bottom fed from.
The texture of catfish is mushy. Very unappealing. And then the catfish is usually deep-fried with a corn meal coating. Although I have seen catfish grilled in various ways, but none that tasted very good to me.
Usually with catfish you'll get these things called hush puppies. These are little balls of deep-fried cornmeal dough, usually tasting the same as what the catfish is coated with.
So, I guess the thing I've learned today is if I want the World's Best Catfish, which I don't, I need to go to Tuckers Catfish Haven.
If you were an apostrophe Nazi, you would have noted that it should have been "Kids' Menu."
ReplyDeleteI think catfish is something that someone from Washington eats voluntarily - once. After that, stick to the salmon or other real fish/shellfish. Even the Atlantic stuff is only a few hours away by commercial jet.
I'm amazed that you tried it more than once. Perhaps you were tortured?
I shall have to make a catfish post over on my blog. It doesn't involve actually EATING the things, however...
ReplyDeleteSteve A---
ReplyDeleteThanks for making the case that I'm not a very good apostrophe Nazi.
I have a few faults. One of them is I'm an eternal optimist. So, I'll give something, like catfish, way more chances than it deserves. Or, I'll see fried fish on a buffet line and take a piece, hoping it's cod, to take a bite to find catfish mud.
When I'm back in Washington seafood is one of the main good things I look forward to. Did you know Skippers went out of business? I remember long ago, when Skippers first showed up, Tuesday was 99 cent all you can eat night. The last time I had Skippers all you can eat cod, chowder, fries and cole slaw it cost $9.99. That was in 2001.
Ivar's always kicked Skippers behind, at least since Skippers lost its way in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteBTW, there ARE still Skippers around, though the parent is dead. Locations are at skippers dot net. The survivor stores are a pale echo of the original, though. Sorta like Herfy's in that regard.
One place that's not real bad around here is Ernies in North Richland Hills. The salmon was edible. I'm not sure why the best seafood in North Texas is merely edible, but I imagine it's because they don't know any better. It's kind of like BBQ in Washington.
Steve A---
ReplyDeleteI was never as big a fan of Ivar's as I was of Skippers. Maybe that's because there were way more Skippers. I did not know there were still pale versions of Skippers around, though it seems someone told me the one in Mount Vernon was still alive.
Herfy's was such a good thing, before it went bad. I never understood what happened to it. The Herfy's Hefty Burger was so good. And the Herfy's Fish Burger was the best ever. At least in my memory. I remember the Herfy's in Bellingham was a hopping Friday and Saturday night hangout type place.
I wonder if Arctic Circles still exist? The last one I recollect seeing alive was in Wenatchee, back in the 1990s.
Regarding Washington BBQ. Just yesterday I was explaining to a Washington teacher who is known, up there, as the BBQ Queen, that Texans do not consider that cooking you do with briquettes to be BBQ, Texans call that grilling. She told me she likes that new name better, so now she is the Grillin' Queen.
I must seek out this Ernies place in NRH of which you speak.