A Few Days Of Sun, Sand, and Seafood

[kayb]

I’m on Day Two of sunning myself on the Redneck Riviera, on the Gulf Coast of western Florida, and it occurred to me I should at least document some of the seafood. Apologies for the two meals I’ve failed to photograph so far; I will do better.

 

Trip down Tuesday was about 2 1/2 hours longer than expected, as we acquired a 3/8 inch bolt through the sidewall of a tire. The delay impacted our lunch plans at Mary Mahoney’s Old French House in Biloxi, MS, one of my favorite destinations for Creole cuisine. We got there about 3, discovered they’d changed from the lunch to the dinner menu, so we had a late lunch/early dinner. 
 

My traveling companion is a connoisseur of gumbo, and contends MM’s is the best she’s had. We both had a cup, a rich brown, with plenteous portions of shrimp and lump crabmeat, spicy but not hot. I guess there was trinity cooked in the roux, but none survived in noticeable bits. 
 

She had fried shrimp, which looked awfully tasty with a crispy batter, almost tempura-ish but a little heavier. I had an appetizer-sized portion of shrimp and crab au gratin, the seafood in an extremely rich Mornay sauce, topped with cheese and broiled. It’ll make a liar of anyone who says one shouldn’t cook seafood with cheese. 
 

Thus fortified, we made it the final 200 miles to our destination, where we enjoyed a late glass of wine on the deck while watching the sunset over the gulf, and I took one of the few photos I’ve taken so far:

 

Yesterday, we lounged on the beach and by the pool, and headed out for dinner to another favorite, Acme Oyster House, a western outpost of the NOLA classic. In a new building on the Intercoastal Waterway, the room is uncommonly pleasant: high ceilings, dark wood, lots of windows. I was, sadly, a little disappointed in the food.

 

Sue had a half a fried shrimp po’boy and a cup of butter beans, sausage and Tasso, and pronounced it good. I was less impressed with my grilled marinated shrimp, which had a Godawfully sweet taste to them. They were somewhat redeemed, though, by the excellent sweet potato fries, which were twice-fried to achieve a crispy outer shell and a creamy inside.

 

Today is more lounging on the beach and at the pool, and debating where we’ll eat tonight. High in the running are Cobalt, a newish place on Perdido Bay where we ate lunch last year; Wolf Bay Lodge, which came highly recommended; and DeSoto’s Seafood House, a classic that’s been dishing up local seafood for 50 years. Or maybe one of a half-dozen other attractive looking places.

 

I promise food photos!

[kayb]

Errr…that should be SUN, sand and…

[BeeZee]

So envious. Love seafood and a beach vacation sounds so nice right now...

[KennethT]

Keep it coming!  Can't wait for more!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, kayb said:

I’m on Day Two of sunning myself on the Redneck Riviera, on the Gulf Coast of western Florida, and it occurred to me I should at least document some of the seafood. Apologies for the two meals I’ve failed to photograph so far; I will do better.

 

Trip down Tuesday was about 2 1/2 hours longer than expected, as we acquired a 3/8 inch bolt through the sidewall of a tire. The delay impacted our lunch plans at Mary Mahoney’s Old French House in Biloxi, MS, one of my favorite destinations for Creole cuisine. We got there about 3, discovered they’d changed from the lunch to the dinner menu, so we had a late lunch/early dinner. 
 

My traveling companion is a connoisseur of gumbo, and contends MM’s is the best she’s had. We both had a cup, a rich brown, with plenteous portions of shrimp and lump crabmeat, spicy but not hot. I guess there was trinity cooked in the roux, but none survived in noticeable bits. 
 

She had fried shrimp, which looked awfully tasty with a crispy batter, almost tempura-ish but a little heavier. I had an appetizer-sized portion of shrimp and crab au gratin, the seafood in an extremely rich Mornay sauce, topped with cheese and broiled. It’ll make a liar of anyone who says one shouldn’t cook seafood with cheese. 
 

Thus fortified, we made it the final 200 miles to our destination, where we enjoyed a late glass of wine on the deck while watching the sunset over the gulf, and I took one of the few photos I’ve taken so far:

 

Yesterday, we lounged on the beach and by the pool, and headed out for dinner to another favorite, Acme Oyster House, a western outpost of the NOLA classic. In a new building on the Intercoastal Waterway, the room is uncommonly pleasant: high ceilings, dark wood, lots of windows. I was, sadly, a little disappointed in the food.

 

Sue had a half a fried shrimp po’boy and a cup of butter beans, sausage and Tasso, and pronounced it good. I was less impressed with my grilled marinated shrimp, which had a Godawfully sweet taste to them. They were somewhat redeemed, though, by the excellent sweet potato fries, which were twice-fried to achieve a crispy outer shell and a creamy inside.

 

Today is more lounging on the beach and at the pool, and debating where we’ll eat tonight. High in the running are Cobalt, a newish place on Perdido Bay where we ate lunch last year; Wolf Bay Lodge, which came highly recommended; and DeSoto’s Seafood House, a classic that’s been dishing up local seafood for 50 years. Or maybe one of a half-dozen other attractive looking places.

 

I promise food photos!

 

Toe pictures in a food blog are always welcome.

 

When I saw your post I wondered if Kerry's Manitoulin sub had made it that far south?  Here in New Jersey we are having a local food event called "Subfest" -- having nothing to do with hoagies.

 

[lemniscate]

Leave it Sub and show me a Redneck Riviera sub sandwich.  That's gotta be a thing.

[kayb]

Well. It’s rainy and overcast today, so I think we’re going to abandon the beach in favor of shopping at the ginormous outlet mall up the road.

 

we settled on Wolf Bay Lodge for dinner. It was good; nothing I could really identify as something I didn’t like, but all in all, it just fell a little short of expectations.

 

Sue, of course, had to try the gumbo. She pronounced it nicely spicy — “it has a bite, but it’s a good bite!” It was, however, light on the seafood and more tomato-ey than classic gumbo. I decided to forego an appetizer in favor of the broiled grouper platter, and it was a good thing I did.

 

 

That slab of grouper was bigger than my outstretched hand. Thinner than I prefer, so it was a touch overdone on the edges, but there was certainly enough of it that you could just leave the overdone edges. The seasoning had a good flavor — heavy on the black pepper. The sautéed veggies were perfectly cooked, crisp-tender. 
 

The hush puppies, though, left me unmoved. They were a bit heavy, and the onion was either way too sweet or they used sugar in the cornbread mix.

 

Sue got the shrimp nachos.

 

Interesting concoction…broiled shrimp (same seasoning as on my grouper), on pita points (pita points? They don’t have tortilla chips on the beach?) drizzled with a cheese sauce and topped with grated cheese. She ate the shrimp, left the pita points.

 

We’re going to brunch en route to the mall. Not sure what tonight’s choice will be. I’ll update this evening or tonight.

 

Here’s the menu for your perusal.

 

All the photos need to be rotated. Apparently I don’t know how to do that on the iPad.

[rotuts]

on your iPad ,pic a photo from the Photo library

 

upper right , touch edit

 

on the left , see the ' box ' w the rotating arrow , tap that

 

and the upper L , see the box  the single arrow , going left

 

done . you might need to tap it a few times to get

 

the orientation you prefer.

 

and thank you for the menu's

Edited May 6, 2022 by rotuts (log)

[kayb]

Thanks, @rotuts.

 

Quick update with a few pix from brunch that fortified us for our shopping trip. We went to Brick and Spoon, a small chain that arcs around the gulf from NOLA to Destin, with outposts in Central Mississippi. 

 

This was mine:

 

A "killer Creole" omelet, with a filling of tasso, shrimp and cheese, with cheese grits. I made it through about half of it, and about half the bowl of grits. In the background is a mimosa, in a cute mini-pilsner glass, that consisted of about a quarter cup of OJ and the equivalent of two glasses of champagne.

 

Sue had shrimp and grits:

 

With a poached egg in the middle.

 

We ate at the bar so we wouldn't have to wait to be seated. An advantage was we got to check out what other folks got to eat. I was impressed by the breakfast tacos, which were filled with eggs, tasso and shrimp. The shell appeared to be a rectangle of phyllo or puff pastry, baked into a folded shell shape. I wanted to ask the guy sitting next to me to let me photograph it, but I refrained. The pancakes the gal on the other side of us had looked pretty wonderful, too; at least eight inches in diameter, 3/4 of an inch thick, topped with a fruit compote and whipped cream. I do not want to know how many grams of sugar that encompassed; it was a lot.

 

I did NOT refrain from asking the bartender if I could photograph a specialty drink he was making, the Big Spoon Bloody Mary:

 

The drink itself has Absolut vodka, citron vodka, and some other kind of vodka. The garnishes you can see are an orange slice, a chunk of mango, a strip of crisp bacon, a stalk of celery, a pickled asparagus spear, a pickled green bean, and a pod of pickled okra. The ones you can't see are two boiled shrimp, a dill pickled spear, and a skewer of about six olives. 

 

Damn thing is a meal all on its own! I'd venture the drink portion is 16 oz or so.

 

In a bit, we're off to Cobalt for dinner. Obviously, there was no lunch. I'll leave you with a couple of pics of the gulf with some decent waves under an overcast sky:

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

Thanks, @rotuts.

 

Quick update with a few pix from brunch that fortified us for our shopping trip. We went to Brick and Spoon, a small chain that arcs around the gulf from NOLA to Destin, with outposts in Central Mississippi. 

 

This was mine:

 

A "killer Creole" omelet, with a filling of tasso, shrimp and cheese, with cheese grits. I made it through about half of it, and about half the bowl of grits. In the background is a mimosa, in a cute mini-pilsner glass, that consisted of about a quarter cup of OJ and the equivalent of two glasses of champagne.

 

Sue had shrimp and grits:

 

With a poached egg in the middle.

 

We ate at the bar so we wouldn't have to wait to be seated. An advantage was we got to check out what other folks got to eat. I was impressed by the breakfast tacos, which were filled with eggs, tasso and shrimp. The shell appeared to be a rectangle of phyllo or puff pastry, baked into a folded shell shape. I wanted to ask the guy sitting next to me to let me photograph it, but I refrained. The pancakes the gal on the other side of us had looked pretty wonderful, too; at least eight inches in diameter, 3/4 of an inch thick, topped with a fruit compote and whipped cream. I do not want to know how many grams of sugar that encompassed; it was a lot.

 

I did NOT refrain from asking the bartender if I could photograph a specialty drink he was making, the Big Spoon Bloody Mary:

 

The drink itself has Absolut vodka, citron vodka, and some other kind of vodka. The garnishes you can see are an orange slice, a chunk of mango, a strip of crisp bacon, a stalk of celery, a pickled asparagus spear, a pickled green bean, and a pod of pickled okra. The ones you can't see are two boiled shrimp, a dill pickled spear, and a skewer of about six olives. 

 

Damn thing is a meal all on its own! I'd venture the drink portion is 16 oz or so.

 

In a bit, we're off to Cobalt for dinner. Obviously, there was no lunch. I'll leave you with a couple of pics of the gulf with some decent waves under an overcast sky:

 

 

 

Amazing coincidence:  the size of my mai tai is 16 oz.

 

[gfweb]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Amazing coincidence:  the size of my mai tai is 16 oz.

 

You should add bacon and shrimp. 

[Shelby]

I want that Bloody Mary.

[blue_dolphin]

Thanks for sharing this trip, @kayb!  We took a family trip to Destin for my parents 50th so this brings back good memories like this view looking down at the beach from the balcony:

[kayb]

Last night we ventured nearby to Cobalt, a trendy, newish place beneath the Perdido Pass bridge. It’s a popular excursion boat tour route, and there’s a big deck for watching the boats. Also several small islands people will dock on for an hour or two of sunbathing or swimming or picnicking.

 

The. It’s from the bar:

 

 

Sue went with her standard fried shrimp. She pronounced them the best of the trip but for Mary Mahoney’s.

 

I settled on yellowfin tuna over Hoppin’ John.

The tuna was crusted in peppercorn and coriander, and then drizzled with a Cajun cream sauce. The Hopping John set it off perfectly.

 

I had to leave two slices of tuna, as I was determined I would splurge on crème brûlée for dessert. Which I almost forgot to photograph.

 

 

l9

The green at the upper left is the leaf off a strawberry.

 

A menu shot:

 

We’ll see what tonight brings.

[sartoric]

Putting tomato juice in the fridge now ! Oh my, that Bloody Mary.

Thanks for sharing.

[Smithy]

It's been years since I visited Florida, or the Gulf. This virtual visit is making me remember what I've been missing, both in terms of scenery and food. Thank you! 

 

And oh, that Bloody Mary is truly inspired!

[kayb]

Last night was good, but nothing to get all excited about. We were tired and sunburned, so just went right down the street to the Crab Trap. While the crab offerings looked good, I was not hungry enough to try one at $60 to 80. Besides, they were all Alaskan varieties, and I prefer local varieties. So I fell back on an old standby: peel and eat shrimp.

 

 

Appetizer size, but it was a dozen jumbos, which was perfectly adequate for me. 
 

We split a hot shrimp and crab dip, with which I was underwhelmed. Just crab, shrimp and bechamel. Bland. I did not take a photo of Sue’s fourth meal of fried shrimp in five days. A fried shrimp is a fried shrimp, at least appearancewise.

 

I did like the decor:

 

Menu photos for @rotuts:

 

And, just for historic note, here’s a photo of the most famous honky-tonk on the gulf — the FloraBama.

 

Sue’s gone to celebrate Mothers Day with her son and family in Tallahassee, so I’m hanging out here at the beach. May Uber to eat tonight.

 

[ElsieD]

I'm another person who likes reading the menus. Having perused it carefully, I'd have had the grouper.

[lindag]

On 5/7/2022 at 6:04 AM, Shelby said:

I want that Bloody Mary.

I had to make one yesterday...(a Bloody Ceasar, actually).  Did not include the food items other than the pickled green beans!  And more like 10 oz.

[kayb]

22 hours ago, ElsieD said:

I'm another person who likes reading the menus. Having perused it carefully, I'd have had the grouper.

Had I not had grouper the night before, I would have.

 

Last night, neither of us was terrifically hungry. We went to Doc’s Seafood and Oyster Bar, which bills itself as serving “the best fried shrimp in the civilized world.” They had a shrimp platter special that included fried, grilled and boiled, which we split but I forgot to photograph. All good.

 

A touch I appreciated was that when I asked for cocktail sauce, they brought me a little plastic tub with a decent sized dab of prepared horseradish. “There’s everything else, so you can make it to suit yourself,” the waiter said, with a gesture toward the on-table tray of condiments. Well, all righty then. A dollop of ketchup, a dash of Tabasco, a shake of Worcestershire and a squeeze of lemon, and there we go! 

I did remember a menu shot.

 

 

Tonight is our last night. Our friend whose condo we’ve been occupying returned late last night from a business trip, so we’ll take him somewhere as a thank you. I hate to leave; it’s gorgeous here.

[ElsieD]

Mahi Mahi for me, please.

 

The beaches on the west coast of Florida are fabulous.  I had a couple of clients who invited me down to stay with them one year.  They were in Sarasota.  The sand on that beach was like powder, quite different from the beaches on the east coast.  I loved it.   Thanks for taking us along on your vacation.

[lindag]

Having lived in Orlando many years ago (long before Disney got there; the population then was about 50,000. I can only guess what it is today) I visited the beaches thereabouts and Sarasota was the most beautiful.

[blue_dolphin]

Yes, thanks for taking us along!  I’m another one who loves to peruse the menus.

I would have gotten the grilled grouper sandwich at the Crab Shack and the crab cakes at Doc's.  
Might just make myself a grilled grouper sandwich today!

[BeeZee]

DIY cocktail sauce is the way to go - extra horseradish, please!

[rotuts]

@kayb 

 

thank you for sharing your trip

 

and the extra effort w menus

 

I love menus w pics on them !

 

it seems to me , the closer you get to 

 

The Shore  , higher the chance for Pics on the Menu !