When I knew that I was going to be spending some time in Thompson Manitoba, I asked my twitter followers where I should dine.  Almost immediately, I got a response my cyber-friend Shel, including a photo of her Thompson lunch.  I made a mental note to check out the Northern Inn.  Ive been in the city for a number of days now but typically have lunch with students in the location where I am teaching.  I did not know until today that the Northern Inn is just steps away from where I am staying.  What I wasn’t aware of, was that even though it was a balmy spring day, the wind was whipping around at 55 kms/hr and walking that short distance was an adventure indeed.

I arrived at 12:30 and the place was hopping.  I was able to find a little table though and had a look at the menu.  Ive often wondered what it would feel like dining alone and you know, as soon as I get my nose into a book, the world around me disappears, so in short, it was not awkward at all.

With one look at the menu, I knew that I would order my summer-time favourite of pickerel and chips. When the server automatically inquired if I would like gravy on my fries, I knew that I had come to the right place.  The selection was actually from the dinner section, but my request was very cheerfully accommodated.  Lunch started with a from-scratch bowl of chicken noodle soup.  The broth was hearty and there were real nuggets of chicken floating around with the broad, wide noodles, turnip and plenty of onion (which IMHO makes for a good chicken broth).

When my lunch arrived I was bowled over to see how much food was on my plate.  I know that I had ordered a dinner but since I was only paying $14 for pickerel, I did not expect to be served such a substantial platter.

I passed on the veggies but really enjoyed the garlic toast, fries and mound of vinegary cole slaw.  I intentionally left some on my plate with half of everything else, so that I could enjoy the left over meal for dinner.  Unfortunately the veggies survived the walk back to my hotel but the delicious cole slaw had been scraped into the garbage.  It is almost supper time right now and lucky for me there is a microwave in my room to warm up my supper before I figure out where I am going to watch the Jets game tonight.

Wow-good ole fashioned, home cooking.  Shel was right.

Could not resist taking a photo of my hotel room door-painted the exact colour of my accessories!

Kath’s quote: “It is odd how all men develop the notion, as they grow older, that their mothers were wonderful cooks. I have yet to meet a man who will admit that his mother was a kitchen assassin and nearly poisoned him.”-Robertson Davies

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