About Regional Flavor
Around the Mobile Bay, must-eats include the sweet local crab-meat specialty, West Indies salad, as well as fried crab claws and fresh oysters. Throughout the state, barbecue is noteworthy – ribs especially; and to the north be sure to look for white BBQ sauce, unique to the area. Deep South classics such as fried chicken, cream pie, and banana pudding abound in the cafes of Birmingham and Montgomery. And you haven’t fully tasted Alabama until you’ve had a kraut-topped chili dog at Mobile’s Dew Drop Inn.
Alabama Regional Specialties
West Indies Salad
At once rich and piquant, West Indies salad is a mix of fresh crab meat, vinegar, salt, pepper, and chopped sweet onion. It is served cool by the bowl – frequently family style for the whole table, accompanied by saltine crackers. It usually is an appetizer, but is often eaten in double portions as an entrée.
Banana Pudding
Of all the South's soothing desserts, none is quite so palliative as banana pudding or, as true aficionados of comfort food know it, 'naner pudding. It is a dandy finish for any meal of meat and threes, especially welcome as the denouement following salty country ham, spicy barbecue, or highly seasoned fried chicken.
White Sauce BBQ
Unique to northern Alabama, white barbecue sauce is smoke-cooked chicken's boon companion. It is mayonnaise-based with an undercurrent of vinegar.