Raised on Rice and Gravy

I had a great time with Conlee, Frank and T-Frank this weekend. Hung out Saturday and Sunday with them, which means we were real fancy. Food, shopping, hitting the Birmingham tourist sites… the works. Here’s a restaurant review for you people who don’t have sisters to pay for your food:

Bottega Café for lunch = “Ham & Cheese” pizza (prosciutto with white cheeses)
Very good and quite salty, even for me, I know. Wish I had opted for the more complex chicken pizza, but I heard great things about their pizzas, so I got one. I give it 3 stars (minus points because they charged me $2.50 for each slice of the cake I brought in for my sister’s birthday, doubling the price. Geez).

Chez Fon Fon for dinner = Steak frites—grilled hanger steak with pommes frites, salsa verde and a small salad
Sooooo good. You’ll need to catch up on your French before you go, but it’s a great place. 4.5 stars and I could eat that meal every day of my life, if I could only afford it.

Little Savannah for lunch = Fried Pork Chop, White Cheddar Blue Corn Grits, Tatsoi, Redeye Gravy
I’ve wanted to go to this place since we went one night for Ashley’s birthday stop #1. But for some reason Ashley and Clayton didn’t take me there on their date. It was really great and like the previous restaurants, they do seasonal foods that feature the local organic farms. I’ve volunteered and gotten to know about the local Jones Valley Urban Farm (www.jvuf.org) and they had food from the Cullman one too. So that adds in some extra Birmingham-local-factor points. They get 4 stars because they did grits and something fried well.

My favorite part of these dining experiences was eating with T-Frank. He ordered Swordfish (because it’s his favorite, of course) and it was not as good as he was used to, so he was unable to finish his sandwich. Also, he uses tons of salt, and that’s meaningful if you have ever eaten with the Schell family. (No Family Song jokes needed here.) But heavy salt use is a genetic trait in our family, so it was good to see that it’s gotten into the fourth generation. We also went to Vulcan, Sloss (where dead bodies were left out from Fright Furnace), Reed Books. Frank was scared to go up to the top of Vulcan, but it was a pretty day, so we made him do it.


Going to AU game this weekend as they play Kentucky at home. We better win and let’s hope it doesn’t rain. Haven’t been to a game in 5 years, so it’ll be good. I was trying to meet up the Littlest Daughtry (don’t be jealous) to pass on the stuff I was making for Jamie, but it’s not going to work out. So looks like I’ll be finding one of her friends to pass that on… haha, I can’t wait. No really, that's what we're doing. I'll show you the picture when I'm done with the stuff. Thank you for being a friend.