Travels in the South

Welcome my friends to another week of Travels in the South.  Today we wanted to share with you one of mom/dad’s favorite appetizers.  A couple of weeks ago, mom/dad was craving this delicious dish and went to the restaurant ordering and splitting just this plate.  What is it you ask?

Let me present to you Carrabbas Italian Grill Calamari.  It’s hand breaded to order and normally served with a marinara sauce.  But mom/dad, they like to get the lemon butter sauce on the side with the sliced peppers for just a little heat.

For those that don’t know what calamari is – it’s squid.  Now before you go eeww, don’t know it until you try it.  Honestly.  Even I have tried it and I like it.  Like in this dish, it’s fried crispy and is wonderful.  Sometimes it can be a little salty but for the most part it’s an awesome dish.

So the next time you are at  Carrabbas Italian Grill, give it a try.  I bet you will fall in love with it as well.

 

Mom’s Food Porn

  Come on my friends… scoot up and get closer to the computer screen.  I have a new edition of Mom’s Food Porn.  A couple of weeks ago, mom/dad went to a place called Joe’s Crab Shack.  This is a chain restaurant that serves seafood.  Mom had a coupon (go mom!) for a free appetizer and plus they had a special going on for dinner.  I’ll tell you about that in a minute.

Let’s talk about the appetizer first.  Mom/Dad choose a sampler platter of fried calamari, crab dip with chips and something called great balls of fire.  The calamari was okay – this is fried squid.  Mom/dad said they have had better.  This was a little rubbery so they were thinking it was overcooked.  It’s in picture to the left – the curly looking things.  The crab dip in the middle was something that mom was hesitant about trying.  It’s loaded with crab meat, cream cheese and Parmesan.  Mom was pleasantly surprised that it was totally delicious!  In the left hand upper corner, that is the great balls of fire.  They are crab balls full of jalapeños and cream cheese coated in panko breadcrumbs.  Again, these were totally delicious!  So the appetizer wasn’t that bad for FREE – right?

Now for the main meal, Joe’s had a special where you could get 33 shrimp for $11.99 – so that’s what mom/dad went for.  The shrimp were coconut, beer battered and BBQ Rub peal and eat.  This was another winner here served with french fries.  The only down fall, the peel and eat were like deep fried.  They were delicious but if you are going to deep fry them, why not peel them first?  Of course, this is just a personal wish from mom.

So have you eaten at Joe’s lately?