I left Alabama three weeks ago and I miss the food already. Here’s the top three that I miss:

McAlister’s Sweet Tea

I didn't like sweet tea before this. Now I could drown in it.

All my life, I’ve never really liked one of the staples of the south, sweet tea.  I always just found it to be a sickly combination of sugar and water with no presence of the second word in it’s name.  McAlister’s Deli, which is a chain, has done something great.  You can actually taste the tea!  I quickly became addicted to it, consuming it every time I went to one of their restaurants.  I guess I’m now part of their Tea Freaks army.

Here in Los Angeles, sweet tea doesn’t exist.  You can get Raspberry Tea, unsweetened iced green tea, and other teas with infused flavors, but nothing like sweet tea in the south.  I think it’s all just weird.  And I hate, hate, hate Raspberry flavors in anything.

Check out McAlister’s Deli.

Two glorious sandwiches after the break!

The Most Glorious Barbecue Sandwich Ever!

Best. Barbecue. Ever. Saw’s opened on Oxmoor Road just a block down the road from where I lived. The smells coming out of place were amazing. The food is even better than you can imagine. The place is run by Mike Wilson who worked in Cooking Light magazine’s test kitchen for many years. A few years ago he developed the cornerstone of his barbecue, Saw’s Sauce. It combines the best aspects of North Carolina’s vinegar-based sauce with the tomato-based sauces from the rest of the South.

But let’s talk about the meat. It’s high-quality, fresh meat smoked for many hours to perfection. It’s so tender and just falls right apart. My favorite is the pulled-pork sandwich. It has this rich, smoky flavor and it’s covered in that glorious sauce. Couple that with their mac and cheese or their baked beans and it’s heaven.

There are lots of other barbecue joints in the Magic City, but nothing touches Saw’s. This place is really small and always crowded and if you eat inside, you will smell like the place for the rest of the day. That’s not a bad thing, but you may find yourself being hungry again really soon.

Check out their website: Saw’s Barbecue
or for their sauce: Saw’s Sauce

Last, but not least…

My favorite sandwich ever.

Pimento BLT Sandwich from Urban Standard in downtown Birmingham. I had never had pimento cheese before I lived in Birmingham. Bored with my usual lunch choice, I decided to try the sandwich from several different places around town. The result was a tasty but kind of sloppy sandwich, thick with mayo. Urban Standard figured out that the perfect compliment is not mayo, but bacon. I don’t know if there is any mayo in the sandwich but it doesn’t seem like it. I much prefer it that way. With the bacon, the tastes are very crisp and wonderful. I could eat this sandwich everyday.

Check out Urban Standard. I’ll be back there next time I’m in town.