Bella Bella samples Gulf Shores cuisine

I do love food.

Some would say that that just makes me an average bear, and that we bears run around all the time thinking with our stomachs.

Okay, that’s probably true.

But I am a travelling teddy bear, thank you very much, and that means that I get to “think with my stomach” in all kinds of interesting places!

Ever heard of comfort food? Comfort food is recipes that make you feel like someone who loves you just wrapped you in your favourite blanket. Traditional dishes from the southern United States give me that feeling really well.

I recently had the great pleasure of visiting the American state of Alabama's sunny seaside.

Like a bear’s open paw, the southernmost part of Alabama reaches down past the states of Florida and Mississippi to reach the Gulf of Mexico. One “toe” of that paw carries the neighbouring towns of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. 

There is great fishing around Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, beautiful sandy beaches, bird-watching, golf, museums, festivals – I had no trouble keeping my humans, Suzanne and Dave, busy. 

We hit the beach …

collected seashells …

went fishing …

and ate. We ate comfort food! Let me show you some of my favourite dishes there.

Grits are a porridge made from ground corn. Mixed with cheese, grits are sublime. Here are grits served with shrimp:

or with deep-fried okra (a vegetable) and crab cakes:

  It’s hard to beat mashed potatoes as comfort food. This is a plate of oven-grilled, rolled flounder fillets with garlic mashed potatoes:

Deep-frying makes just about everything delicious. Here’s a plate of deep-fried breaded Blue Crab claws:

  Shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico are a real delicacy. Here are some deep-fried, served with noodles and flavourful corn:

  This is a whole platter of amberjack (a kind of fish) served blackened (cooked in a really hot pan), breaded and deep-fried, or in a cream sauce with crabmeat. The platter also holds round, deep-fried cornmeal fritters that are known as hushpuppies. 

  In the South, chefs sometimes deep-fry vegetables like green beans or asparagus. One of the best is slices of deep-fried (or just fried) green tomatoes:

You better believe those are delicious! Here’s a kind of shrimp called Royal Red, served with one of those fried green tomatoes:

I admit, those whole shrimp (with their eyeballs and all) do look a bit like Klingon food. I’ve never tried gagh, but I’m told that at least the Klingons find it homey …

 

We can all love scallops. This pile of scallops came with a couple of hushpuppies, those divine nuggets of fried cornmeal yumminess …

  Believe it or not, oysters really are good to eat, though I had to close my eyes the first time! Here are oysters served raw (less comforting):

and broiled (truly comforting):

Oh boy, I even found room for a few desserts, like bread pudding, and Key lime pie:

 

Burp! I needed somewhere to sleep off all this food!

I found a nice grotto (a little cave) underneath a waterfall at the Bellingrath Gardens that was perfect for a snooze. I’ll tell you more about the gardens – and other fun things along Alabama’s Gulf coast – in my next few posts.

 

Story © S. Clouthier

Map of Alabama courtesy Wikipedia

Photos © S. Clouthier and D. Wei