Birmingham Winter Restaurant Week

Welcome to the first post of the food and restaurant blog I've thought about writing for years!  Although I just read that blogging has become less popular, there may be a few people out there who want to know my opinion of where and what to eat.  Since I have been called a foodie, a food snob, and a connoisseur, my qualifications are obvious!

Other qualifications include that I was raised by a mother who could cook like crazy.  Paula Deen reminds me so much of her and they have used so many of the same idioms.  Mama's been gone over thirty years and I can still recall the flavors of her dishes.   We didn't have a whole lot of fancy meals, but dang, it was good and so many people still talk about what a great cook she was! So although my palate may not be terribly sophisticated, I know flavor when I taste it, whether plain or fancy.  And I consider myself to be a better than average cook, also!

This week being the Winter Restaurant Week in my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama inspired me to start writing about what I eat.  Please, don't anyone give my physician this blog address or he will have me locked up for my own good! And sister dear...it was only a bite! Here's the run down and in each restaurant I chose the pre-fixe menu since that should have been the star of the day, right?

Galley and Garden:

They've renovated that big white mansion and the potential is enormous for this quaint location.  My friend and I ordered an appetizer of pork belly flatbread.  It was so different and delicious.  But the jalapeño was too hot for me so I took it off.  The right amounts of everything else was on it.  What was that sauce that was slightly sweet?  I don't know but it was yummy and the pork belly was not fatty but meaty, which pleasantly surprised me.  The arugula topping made it seem fresh, light and calorie-free...like salad!  

The entree took a while, although it was salmon and it was a late lunch so hardly anyone was in the restaurant.  But that was okay because girlfriends can talk!  However, when it did arrive at the table, it was not quite as hot as I would have liked it to be.  Don't get me wrong... I can eat almost any food cold and it's not a big deal normally, but restaurant week should be the time to shine!  The first bite of salmon was a bit fishy which is a turn off.  But I saw that I needed to remove that tiny bit of dark fish at the bottom and once I did, the flavor was good.  It came on a bed of mashed potatoes with green beans (or haricot vert, if you want me to be fancy about it) on top and a little bit of salad on the side. It was all pretty good.

For the grand finale, just the sound of caramel apple bread pudding makes me salivate.  But again, it was cold! But had it been piping hot, I'll bet the caramel and apples would have melted together and met my expectations.  I will say that the chantilly cream was lovely!  But that's supposed to be cold, I think. 

Overall, I had a nice meal but it was not to be my favorite of the week.

Stay tuned for more posts about Birmingham Winter Restaurant week and meals I cooked that hit a home run.  Thanks for reading,

J