A trip down south with all the gulfside delicacies

This post is a little different. I decided to talk about the various foods that we had an opportunity to taste while on our vacation. As the experimental cook that I am, I ave already made one of them.

The week before spring break came with the great news that I was going back to work again.I looked forward to spending three days by the sea, enjoying the splendid weather and of course the food. Pensacola is a part of the Perdido Keys and the people were very friendly. It was typical southern hospitality with the restaurant serving a lot of typical southern favorites. The first night we tasted the food at Crabs We Got 'Em . The food was as delicious as the amazing view of the Bay from the table. I tried the fried okra and it was crunchy and delicious with the right amount of spice in it. Another new thing that I ate that night was hushpuppies. They were both savory and sweet and I loved to eat them whereever I ate as them seem to be a standard side dish with your food down south.

The next afternoon , after a leisurely afternoon around the beach, we went to Crabs again for lunch. I decided to try the crab soup with sherry on the side. The sherry gives an extra kick to the soup which is otherwise bland. The plates of food were huge and based on our experience from the night before we decided to share a plate of seafood along with the soup. Everything was batter fried and it was too greasy and heavy for a lunch.

That night we hopped on to a restaurant on the other side facing the Pensacola Bay called the Flounder's Chowder House. They had a great Flounder Chowder which seemed to be there prized dish. My husband tried the flounder stuffed with crab cake. I found the dish too bland. While we were there , the manager suggested that we tried the Fish House in downtown Pensacola. The chef there makes a lot of fusion cuisine where he adds an Asian flair to the Gulf cuisine.

So next evening we decided to visit the Fish House, which is a regular haunt for locals. We sat outside, which is a raised platform just beside the water.The view was not that great but the food was. We tried many southern favorites like grits with gouda cheese, jambalaya and again soem fried okra. The okra was too bland here but the grits were awesome( why not, they had a bunch of calories in them). The fish had a Asian ginger sauce coating and was delicious.

The food was great, the weather fabulous-but the most important thing that I personally experienced was the southern hospitality. The people were friendly whereever we went and this added an extra charm to the vacation. The next week I made the fried okra at a party at home and it was a huge hit.