Catfish Kettle Review
November 24, 2024 – Farmington, Missouri
Looking for a great meal? Catfish Kettle is the place for country cooking in Farmington, MO.
However, once my husband and I stepped inside, the place was buzzing and the friendly faces were ready to give us a meal worth every penny. Our upbeat server complimented our choice of catfish and brought us out an old-school Mason jar of iced tea. Shortly thereafter, we were presented with a plate of pickles, onions and tarter sauce. This was just a prelude to the magic that was about to happen.
It had been years since we visited the Catfish Kettle. When we pulled up to the place, it didn’t seem as grand as my memories. The building was a simple structure, the parking lot was a bit awkward and the front door was weather-beaten. Had I not remembered the place so fondly, I would have walked away in normal circumstances.
With a remarkably short wait for a busy Saturday lunch, two piping hot plates of catfish, fries and slaw were presented. They had advertised on the menu that the fillets would be huge. They weren’t exaggerating. The fillets were perhaps twice as large as what we’d had at a famous chicken/fish house in South St. Louis County.
The taste of the fish was hot and just right with spice. The thick-cut, spiral fries were a pleasant surprise and equally freshly fried. The sweet slaw was light and a fantastic compliment all around. The only slightly disappointing item were the hush puppies that were a bit more greasy than my preference.
There was so much food that neither of us could finish everything. Between the two of us, we had one leftover fillet and a generous pile of fries. They happily provided us with a to-go box. Pricing was fair at dinner for two with tip just under $50. Senior meals are available.
Tips: All you can eat is offered as an option. Unless you have the appetite of a lion, stick to the two-fillet meal. We saw a neighboring table leave a pile of leftovers on their table and can only assume they did the all you can eat. Second helpings are likely generous.
Photos and Article by Cheryl Hughey
Tips for Safer Online Shopping
With holiday sales upon us, it’s a good time to review some simple steps to keep your information safe online.
According to the 2023 Internet Crime Report by the FBI, “Call centers overwhelmingly target older adults, with devastating effects. Almost half the complainants report to be Over 60 (40%), and experience 58% of the losses (over $770 million).”
Greedy theives can be creative in how they try to trick you into giving up your credit card number or other personal information like your social security number. Criminals disguise themselves by pretending to someone or something that you know, while creating situations that appear to need an urgent need. The bad guys may also prey on your desire to be helpful by using make believe scenarios with problems only you can solve.
Criminals disguise themselves by pretending to someone or something that you know, while creating situations that appear to need an urgent need.
An example of trickery could be someone calling you claiming to be a well-known software company trying to help save your computer that has something wrong. They may ask you to logon to your computer and visit a website for help, while keeping your on the line to be helpful.
Once you have visited their website, they may ask for permission to click onto your computer and fix the issue for you. There might be some side story about how they got to a parent’s computer too late and it crashed, as well as how lucky they are that you got to them in time. The person on the phone will play on emotion, confusion and urgency. However, once they get on your screen, the trap is set. They now have full control of your computer and can take whatever information they want like passwords, bank account numbers, credit card numbers and more.
Five tips to help protect your information:
- Get caller I.D. If you are using a cellphone, services like AT&T actually will warn you or suspected spam callers and even provide a robotic screening feature to ask the caller why they are calling.
- Thieves may also fake the phone number to make it seem like they are calling locally. If you do not know the number and are not expecting a call, let the call roll over to voicemail or use a screening feature.
- If you answer the phone and something seems off, say “goodbye” and hang up. Trust your gut.
- If you receive an email, never open attachments from anyone that you aren’t immediately involved with in a business or personal transaction. If it appears to be from your bank, credit card or other business, do not trust the phone numbers on the email. Verify the phone number on your bills or a website. Then, call the business to ask if the email is legitimate.
- You can also determine the potential likelihood that the email is fake by looking at the send address. Does it come from the .com associated with the company? If it looks weird, it probably is. Also, check the email for spelling errors or sentence structure that seems off. Foreign criminals can sometimes be spotted by sloppy business sentence structure.
Stay Vigilant
It is our hope that we’ve given you a little more confidence to help you enjoy safer shopping. Remain aware, never be afraid to ask questions and keep learning!
by Cheryl Hughey
