Gulf beaches and wonderful food

Sometimes, you can't believe how lucky you can be. This last whole week of the year was spent on the white sand beaches of Perdido Key Florida with my wife, two kids, and my future son in-law. Since 1974, when my father's uncle retired in Gulf Shores, Alabama, the McNair family has been coming to the southern beaches of Alabama and the northern panhandle of Florida. The beaches here are white sand, so white that the Realtor in the area call them sugar sands. After hurricane Fredric came though in 1979 our family didn't return for a number of years.  After I met and married my wife, we started looking for fun place to take a vacation. It was around spring break in the year 1986 that my wife and I booked a week through a company that had an agreement with the company for which she worked. At that time RCI (Resort Condominiums International) was one of the premier time-share rental agencies in the Midwest. Since we rarely use time-share rentals any more, I really can't say what condition they are in now.

We  managed to get a deal for a week at a little beach front condo called The Shores in Orange Beach Alabama. At the time, The Shores consisted of four two story beach front condos built from standard two by fours, siding and, dry wall. Of course, because The Shores was on a coast prone to hurricanes, the little condo was on stilts with the parking underneath it. We had a terrific time. We enjoyed delightful food, ranging from heaps of wonderful fresh shrimp to delicious grilled amberjack an triggerfish. My favorite dishes from that era were the stuffed flounder at the Shrimp Boat in Gulf Shores, the Grilled teriyaki triggerfish at Mikee's in Gulf Shores and the Grilled amberjack sandwich at Montego Bay in Orange Beach. Sadly, having been in business for decades, the owners of the Shrimp Boat retired and sold the restaurant. Also, Montego Bay closed after a few years as well. Happily Mikee's is still open, and while it has been some time that they have served triggerfish, the seared scallops and emerald green salad there are still good. Unfortunately, The Shores was a casualty of Hurricane Ivan.  A big multi-story condo sits where The Shores and the Tiki bar that set next to it use to be.  Sometimes progress is not so progressive.

Over the years we have seen a large number of changes. More and more people have discovered the beauty of the gulf coast. The crowds are daunting in the summer. With more people coming to the area more Condo's have been built along the beach. More condos mean that fewer views of the gulf are possible. The creature of the sea have always attracted me to the beach.  My wife and I are certified divers and love to admire the wild life of the ocean. I'm sure that all the new development coupled with the tragic oil spill and hurricane Ivan has had  an devastating effect on the wild life. In the not too distant past the beach was crowded with white ghost crabs. People could go to Fort Morgan and find beautiful shells occupied by hermit crabs. It has been several years since i have seen these wonderful animals.  I hope the crabs still occupy the dunes at the state park, or can be founding the areas made off limits where the sea oats grow. It would be a sad commentary on us if these beautiful creatures were lost. I hold out some hope however for the gulf has shown she is tougher than we would imagine. I have seen dolphins in the morning, and sea birds all over the beach just a couple of years after the tragic oil spill in the gulf. The Gulf of Mexico is wounded and she will probably be a different lady when she recovers, but she will recover.

 We have had sort of a Christmas tradition that has we have observed for several years now. The first day after Christmas we pack up the car an drive the 700 miles. To the gulf beach area. Sometimes we stay in Gulf Shores. Often we stay in Orange beach. Over the past few years we have been staying in Perdido Key. The only difference between the locations is the state they are in. Perdido Key is in Florida, while Orange Beach and Gulf Shores is in Alabama. This trip we stayed in Perdido Key.  We spend our time down there enjoying the beach, seeing movies and shopping. One of the biggest attraction to this area is the seafood. As a result, much of the time on our trips to the gulf is spent enjoying the  bounty of the gulf of mexico. On this trip we have found three new restaurants, All thee of which are delightful in their own way.

 The Fisherman's Corner was the first of these new restaurants. We ate at the Fisherman's Corner on Tuesday night. They are a family owned restaurant that specializes in New Orleans style cuisine. I had some creole fettuccine that had crab and shrimp. The sauce was creamy and rich and I could tell the spent a lot of time preparing it. It was simply delicious. My wife had shrimp with grits with a Fisherman's Corner spin. The grits were coated with panko bread crumbs an served with the shrimp and the sauce over it. I thought that was very creative and gave the dish a crunch that it would otherwise lack. All the dishes brought to us were good and expertly prepared. We arrived at the restaurant during an unexpected rush.  The wasn't enough staff on site because of all the people that wanted to eat there that night.  But the wait for our food, while longer than normal, wasn't too bad. Soon the rescue squad arrived and every one was served. Our server was very attentive considering all the tables she had to deal with.

 The second new restaurant on the list is a new Asian fusion restaurant in orange beach. We were looking for something a little different from the run of the mill restaurants down here on the gulf coast and we surely found it at Zen. There we arrived soon after they had opened for the day so there was no waiting to get a table. We were seated and the server soon came over to get our drink orders. some how, our family has gotten into the habit of ordering water with our meals. Drinking water with our meals is probably healthier and defiantly cheaper than buying soda or tea with each meal. After a few moments we were ready to order. My son chose the sesame beef, my daughter wanted the lettuce wrap. My wife ordered a crab cake on fried rice. My future son in-law and I ordered the peanut chicken. Bonnie really enjoyed the crab cake and the rest of us cleaned our dishes with great relish. My daughter found the wrap too spicy for her tastes, so we later bought her a turkey sandwich at he Publix near the restaurant. Once again the service was quick and we enjoyed our food for the most part. My chicken was tender and spicy and the veggies were good. Though I thought the asparagus was kinda mushy. The bean noodles were surprisingly good and didn't at all look like worms as bean noodles can.

 The third new restaurant, and the last to make it into this post is The Cobalt. This place was conceived by the owners of Cosmo's restaurant and, I believe, the developer of the Carib condominiums that are close to the restaurant . I'll have more to say about Cosmo's later in this post. We didn't know what to expect when we decided to go to this restaurant. Because we had been to Cosmo's in the past we hope the quality of the food would be comparable. Once again, we arrived at the restaurant soon after it opened and were seated immediately. Our server promptly came to the table and gave us a verbal tour of the restaurant. We discovered that the place had, not one central kitchen, but thee kitchens devoted to specific menu items. One kitchen was devoted to pizza and had a wood fired oven to bake them in. One kitchen did only oyster dishes. Many of there oyster dishes appealed to us. The last kitchen was the general kitchen that produced the more general entrees. The server took our order for drinks and a dozen raw oysters, while we pursued the menu for our entree. The oysters were big and cold and fresh, just what we wanted.  I chose a delicious rice and seafood Paella that was spicy an tasty. My daughter chose the grilled red fish which she let me taste. It was wonderful. My wife, once again ordered the shrimp and grits.  This was a completely different dish that what she got at the Fisherman's Corner, but she enjoyed  All in all we had good luck with the new restaurants and can't wait for the next trip to try them again.

Having spent some time talking about the new places we went to, I should probable spend some time talking about some of our old favorites that we have often visited.  Our first night, on the trip down, we stopped at Bay Minette to eat.  We ate at an old favorite called the Shrimp Basket.  I had the oysters and popcorn shrimp. My son opted for the fried Crayfish tails and the rest of my party had the fried popcorn shrimp.  The shrimp were not as good as it had been in the past, they seemed over cooked and lacked in the great flavor that I was accustom to eating on the gulf coast. When we revisited another Shrimp Basket location near the Condo where we were staying we and had the same experience.  I asked the server if the shrimp were still wild shrimp.  She said that due to the oil spill there were few wild shrimp available. This makes me sad because the flavor of wild shrimp is so much better than the farm raised ones. What is usually one of the best meals of the trip sadly turned into the most disappointing meal we had.  We also had meals at Cosmo's, Lambert's, Tacky Jacks, Lillian's Pizza and Wintzell's Oyster house. The food at Cosmo's was good, however i felt a little like we were stuffed in a corner and forgotten about.  Water for our glasses was hard to come by and we didn't get any bread at all like normal.  Lambert's was Lambert's.  They serve well prepared food home style meals with lots and lots of food.  We go every year and take home  left over pork jowl  to eat for breakfast. Tacky Jack's is lots of fun.  They have expanded their restaurants to a number of additional locations.  You can count on good sandwiches and quick service at a reasonable price. Lillian's doesn't seem to have fully recovered from hurricane Ivan a few years ago.  The pizza has never been as good what the Pre-Ivan Lillian's served.  I've become more partial to Crico's pizza.  Lillian's delivered and we were tired so we ordered where we had to use the least amount of effort. Wintzell's clam to fame is its oysters.  They had them on sale for five dollars a dozen. My wife and I ordered a dozen each.  The oysters were good and fresh and cold.  My entree was Trigger fish.  I was a happy man.  Trigger fish after all the years without it was wonderful to find.   The dish itself was served with an crayfish sauce that i didn't think the fish needed, but the trigger fish itself was just like I remember it. Trigger fish has a firm flesh that is perfect for grilling, pan frying or blackening.

I thought I would try to sum us the trip in the last paragraph. Our weather was amazing. Each day was warm and sunny as it should be when you go to the beach. We only had one day of bad weather when it was foggy all of new years eve. Our little group has had wonderful moments in the pool and on the beach it self. The beauty of he area quite takes your breath away. Of course, in December and early January the gulf waters are pretty cold, a fact we l experienced as when we took the polar bear dip at the flora-bama on new years day.  I always feel that these trips keep family close. We constantly have the opportunity make memories that will bind us as a family forever. I wouldn't trade times like these for all the gold in the world, and as my kids start to go into the world, I hope that they too will find ways like this to make memories that will last forever for there families. (And find ways to include us.)