What to Eat in Birmingham

Blogosphere friends, I owe you an apology. It has been weeks since my last post. There are photos on my iPhone crying out to be viewed, and stories needing to be told. Top among them is the story and photos from our experience at Parish Seafood & Oyster House.

The same great foodie friends who told us about Oscar’s Happy Hour directed us to Parish. I asked how they find out about this stuff – apparently liking dozens of good restaurants on Facebook alerts you to special events.

On this particular Friday night, we went to Parish seeking their crab and shrimp boil event. One thing that never ceases to amaze me about Birmingham is that some of the best restaurants can be found in small suburbs 30 minutes away from downtown. Parish is a good example of that-it is in Trussville along the side of a small highway. So late one Friday night, we headed east to meet our foodie friends, along with my 16 year old sister who was visiting from out of town.

It’s a pretty unassuming place from the outside:

They have a newly built back porch and were playing live music, which was perfect for a cool late summer evening.

Now, down to business:

We were late, and our friends had already taken the liberty of ordering smoked tuna dip, a favorite gulf coast appetizer. It reminded me of the same dish at some of my favorite Destin restaurants-creamy and delicious. The 5 of us polished off two:

Each couple decided to order the Royal Boil, which includes oysters, crab legs, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn. My sister only likes crab legs, and we were prepared to let her eat most of ours.

The oysters were served first, either raw:

Or baked, with delicious soft bread:

Then the main event. Not much to say, it tasted as good as it looked:

Here’s my sister enjoying a crab legs. I love food that burns more calories during consumption than it actually costs when you eat it: