Your Comments & Mitchell's Fish Market

Many of you have complained that it is difficult to put a comment on my blog. I agree. I’ve tried it too, and it is nigh onto impossible. Apparently the only folks who can figure this out are guys who work for The Unnamed Mattress Company and Restaurant Owners. Wouldn’t you think the geeks at Google could make commenting more user-friendly? As there are no comments, it must appear to you all that no one is reading my blog, yet I get emails saying you are. So just keep reading, my good friends. And if you can’t wade through the techie hoo-haa to leave a comment, send it to my email. I LOVE to hear from you.

Yesterday was one of the every-other Wednesdays when I have a cleaning gal who decontaminates my house. It is good idea to get out of her way, to leave my house on those days. So My Walking Companion (MWC) and I have decided to do something fun together every other Wednesday. Today was our first try at blowing much of a day together. First we walked laps in the Mall (it was raining). Then we shopped. Then there was lunch.

There are several new restaurants that you enter directly from Brookfield Square’s parking lot. (I just want you to know that I can “practically see these restaurants when I'm sitting at my kitchen table,” so that makes me an expert chef.)

Back to our lunch. MWC and Her Man had recently eaten dinner at the Fox and Hounds and been very disappointed in their food. She complained of under-cooked vegetables, poorly prepared walleye, and unappetizingly-presented mountains of food on their plates. She wanted a comparison. Someplace that might know how to cook fish. We chose Mitchell’s Fish Market.

Mitchell’s inside has a very attractive, modern decor with rich warm woods, cozy booths along the outside walls, and, on a rainy Wednesday noon, was only about a third full. The clientele was mixed: businessmen and women in suits from the nearby offices, senior couples in sweaters and slacks, and a few hip and trendy people wearing jeans and tennis shoes - like MWC and me.

Our attentive waitress, Lea, informed us that Mitchell’s prints a new menu every day, based on what fish are flown in that day. Their fish is all flown in FRESH EVERY DAY. Trust me: this is important to folks who live as far from an ocean as we do. Lea also recommended the day’s special fruit drink made of mangoes and oranges ($3.50) that turned out to be a perfect thirst-quencher for us athletic mall-walkers. For my lunch I ordered the Cedar Roasted Salmon ($12.95), a 4-ounce fillet served on a wood plank atop delicious oven-roasted vegetables. And not just your usual broccoli and carrots. There were slabs of roasted portabella mushrooms and eggplant and yellow peppers topped with a delicious red pepper coulis. I haven't found chain restaurants to be the best places to eat, but this is a chain restaurant that knows how to hire a good chef.

MWC ordered the Asian Salmon Salad ($12.95). Her luncheon plate included a nice-sized mesclun salad topped with a grilled salmon fillet that had been basted with a slightly sweetened soy sauce. Also on her plate was a pile of very thin angel hair pasta prepared with the same Asian sauce. MWC found it both attractive and delicious. So did I, as we shared bites across the table.

The Man Who Eats Pretty Much Only Steak Or Spaghetti would never consider putting a bite of what I’ve ordered in his mouth. So he’s not keen on sharing even a tiny taste of his dinner. With MWC, it seemed perfectly natural to sample each other’s food. Otherwise how is An Important Restaurant Critic to access the information she requires to tell you about ALL the dishes prepared in a restaurant? (Stay tuned: tonight we're off to Water Buffalo in the Third Ward.)

Our lunches at Mitchell's did take abut 20 minutes to be served after we placed our order, which could be a problem for those on a lunch hour from office work. But for MWC and I, it was a perfect time to sit a few minutes and learn what each other looks like, after walking, side-by-side, for 30 years. Or so.

Stirring the Pot