It seems I'm on a fish and shellfish kick lately. It may seem at odds with my preference to eat locally grown things, but last I checked Missippi River had no Mahi Mahi , or shrimp or crabs. They arrive via a company named Plitt. They are based in Chicago, and my sales rep tells me the fish is 48 hours out of the water, and I do believe him. I have never refused delivery on anything sent to me. I once refused an entire truck of 48 cases because the peppers were soft. That's extreme, and I was making a point because every week there was one or two things not acceptable. When that happens they start paying attention to your order.

I always write about my specials, but our menu items are nice too. They usually start life as a special. When one sells particularly well and doesn't cost too much to produce I move it onto the menu the next time I change it. One menu appetizer we do at the restaurant is a seafood cocktail. We use an ice cream sundae glass and layer it with crab, lobster, shrimp, cocktail sauce, and chiffonade of lettuces.

Back to the fish story, The fish leave Chicago by truck. My order is routed through Springfiled, IL. In Spring field he entire St Louis area order is moved onto a secondtruck (this is about 3:30 to 4 AM). The St Louis order arrives in St Louis in the morning (6:30 or thereabouts) from there it is divided into smaller trucks and routed for delivery. It all works remarkably well. Sometimes the truck is a little late, but not nearly as aften as some of the local comapanies.

Two other suucesful fish dished this week were blackberry and mustard glazed Mahi Mahi with blackberry wine sauce, and seared tuna on noodle salad with wasabi cream and wonton chips.