One of the most shocking realizations that I had when I became firmly committed to a piscetarian dietary style was this: Road Food Is Hard To Find.
We were standing in front of a Subway, my beloved and I, and I was In Need of Protein. The one thing I can get in nearly any town, iceberg lettuce and some bread that probably was not made with eggs and possibly was not made with milk, was not going to cut it. He, however, had thought that Subway would be fine--tuna sandwiches, you know? But I stood there and starved, so hungry that I actually cried, because the tuna salad is mayo-based. Eggs. Even if the mayo was vegan (and why Subway would use veganaise on a tuna sandwich, I dunno), I couldn't eat it--the soy would move it out of my dietary range.
He learned that day that when I said no animal products but sea creatures, I meant it. It was a long ride to the family home that morning. Ever since that day, I have learned to pay attention to Road Restaurants that we can all eat at.
Fred's Drive-in is one of those places I will go to when I am jonesing for the bad foods of my home town. Fred's is one of several Milwaukee area restaurants that is devoted to a style of artery-clogging eating that is immensely pleasurable and insufficiently available away from the southwest corner of the Third Coast. Fred's specializes in Chicago dogs and Italian Beef and Polish and Italian sausages like you'd find at a vendor outside Wrigley Field. MMM, giardinara!! MMM fried onions!!! MMMM lots of other stuff I don't eat anymore!
Fred's, however, has something that the other good Chicago-style beef joints in the Milwaukee area don't have: the Flynn Fin.
The origin of the sandwich, in short: The police chief saw the restaurant across the street from his brand-spankin' new police station and gasped at the beauty of the menu... and then realized that it would not have the best health effect on his officers. Really, you want the police officers to be healthy. Flynn certainly does. And so he asked the owner for a sandwich a little less overwhelming and just as tasty. The Flynn Fin was born shortly thereafter.*
It's a salmon fillet on your choice of roll, bun, or rye, with options for additional condiments and lettuce or tomato. I got mine on rye, with the lettuce and tomato, and brown mustard. Since I was having a bad-eats day, I had fries as well.
I have to say, I was happy. Here in the land of the Friday Fish Fry, you would think that most chefs can do simple fish like salmon. I assure you, there are many who can not. Fred's Drive-in can. The salmon was cooked appropriately, the lettuce was real leaf lettuce, the tomato was ripe rather than pink cardboard, and the amount of mustard was just right--mustard can overwhelm a sandwich. This didn't.
The fries were the fat, crinkle cut sort. Not my favorite--again, because they are so often cooked poorly--but these were fine. And Hot. And excellent conveyors of rich and tasty ketchup. MMMM.
There is also a breaded fish fillet on the menu, more like the sort of fish sandwich you'd get at a fast food chain. I presume it's good, as I've never had anything I don't like there-hell, even the Decider likes Fred's--but I won't be trying it anytime soon, as the Flynn Fin tasted so very fine.
*A longer version of the story is here.
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