We have wanted to go to the Pepper Place Farmer’s Market in Birmingham for quite some time. We’ve heard great things about it, but with my work schedule and the improvements we have been making to the house, we haven’t had a free Saturday morning in a long time.
Until yesterday.
We loaded up our cooler and refrigerator bags (planning also to make a stop at Costco) and headed to downtown Birmingham. Yes, it started raining on the way, but we thought maybe it would stop/move on/dry up by the time we got there. We looked at the weather radar map on the Droid and decided to ignore it.
Well, it never stopped, and we went anyway. It poured. Of course I did not take any pictures because I didn’t want to risk getting my camera wet, but it was really nice. Pepper Place Market embodies what I miss about Birmingham – plenty of “small community” inside the larger city. The market had a great selection of produce, eggs, meat, flowers, wine, and art. Local musicians were playing and there were many more patrons than you would expect in the rain. I had never been in that particular area of downtown before and it was so nice, despite the fact that it was raining and most everything was closed. We decided to leave and come back if it cleared up because the thought of toting large bags of produce/eggs in the rain was not appealing and neither was the idea of getting really soaked, because we had planned to go to Costco and Niki’s West, and still would have the drive back home. We will definitely have to go back on a sunnier day.
Ahhhhh…….Niki’s West – the BEST meat + veggies place in Alabama. Maybe the southeast? Maybe the entire country? Brent has been craving Niki’s for so long, but had been instructed to avoid Vitamin K-containing foods (i.e., green, leafy veggies) while on the blood thinners because he had so much trouble getting and keeping his INR in the therapeutic range.
The pictures were taken with my Droid, so they are not that great, but allow me to introduce you to the best flounder I have ever eaten. It was lightly pan-fried and not greasy at all + served with the best tartar sauce I have ever tasted. You see also in the picture above the best (and largest) roll known to man. This is my favorite bread ever. Words cannot describe how great these rolls are. To the right are fried mushrooms – a whim, but a good decision. In the background you can see Brent’s mac & cheese + mashed potatoes. Ironically, he didn’t get any green, leafy veggies.
And what you see in this picture is fried green tomatoes. AKA slices of heaven.
Fried green tomatoes are one of two “true Alabama” foods that I knew nothing of until I moved to this great state. I mean, I had heard of fried green tomatoes from the movie, but I didn’t know anyone really ate them or where I would get them. Little did I know that my life was incomplete. I dip them in ketchup, which is strange, but they are so good. And in case you are wondering, the other “true Alabama” food is white BBQ sauce, which I now LOVE.
And no, I did not eat all of that fried food.
For supper, we met some of Brent’s bike friends + their wives at Moe’s, a really good BBQ place in Tuscaloosa. Probably the best BBQ in town, actually. Unfortunately, we got there at ~6:30 and were told that they were out of chicken, turkey, potato salad, and ribs. Unacceptable! Seriously unacceptable! How does a BBQ restaurant run out of chicken or ribs before 7 pm on a Saturday night? We stayed, and the food was good (especially the skillet corn), but still….the only “restaurant” (using the term very loosely) I have ever known to be out of something was one time Long John Silver’s ran out of chicken planks (I suppose I use “chicken” very loosely in this context, also). I expect that from a place like LJS, but not Moe’s!
Having dinner with his cycling friends really got Brent excited to get back on the bike. So this is what I found this morning, shortly after he got out of bed (note the bed head):
We are planning an afternoon ride, rain or shine. Just stay tuned! Ha!
