What the Hell Did You Eat?!

I'm relieved that my five pounds of Thanksgiving weight gain is now only four pounds, but it still begs the question: "What the hell did you eat?!" Steve and I went to Birmingham for the first time in four years, and while it wasn't a terribly long trip, there was a lot of food to be eaten. When you visit a place you don't often frequent, there are certain restaurants a person just has to visit while in town. While I normally wouldn't think consuming that many calories in a seven-day stretch is healthy or wise, I decided that in this instance I would make an exception in order to satisfy what I call "The Lunch List". It's like a bucket list for fat people. For instance, if I were to vacation in say, Maine, I would add lobster to my Lunch List. When I visit New Orleans, beignets from Cafe Du Monde are always on my Lunch List. When we go to the beach, seafood po boys are at the top of Steve's Lunch List. You get the idea.

So, I don't really think Birmingham is known for a particular restaurant or cuisine, so you may be wondering what was so important to us dining-wise. Here's a play-by-play of last week's calorie binge:

Milo's

If you're from Birmingham, you're probably already singing the jingle "Everybody goes to--Milo's!" I ate at Milo's once in 1997, and it was just "meh" for me. I didn't see what all the fuss was about, but I'm pretty much alone in my opinion. Everybody else goes bananas for it.  See that sauce in the picture next to the fries? Yeah, it's "special". To me, it's somewhere between a sauce and a gravy. You drown your burger in it and dip your fries in it. They're very generous with their onions, too. Also, their sweet tea is so famous, they bottle it up and sell it in the grocery stores. It's the best tea. One of the toughest things about moving to Texas was having to buy Red Diamond tea instead of Milo's. As the wife of a man who has sweet tea running through his veins, I can testify that the first time he realized he didn't have access to Milo's tea was a day without sunshine. Steve ate Milo's twice in the five days we were in Birmingham.

Mellow Mushroom

Famous for it's calzones, Mellow Mushroom is a pizza place found mainly in college towns. It was a favorite place for me to eat in Auburn. Luckily, they have a couple in Birmingham now, and don't think I didn't hit it up while I was there.

Are you gonna finish that?

Jim 'N Nick's

Jim 'N Nick's is a Birmingham institution, with several locations throughout the city, and a parking lot that is always packed. I had to hit up my neighborhood Jim 'N Nick's while I was in Hoover, but not for the reason you might think--famous for their BBQ, I'm a sucker for their...wait for it...grilled chicken salad. With homemade honey mustard dressing and delicious cheese biscuits and chocolate pie for dessert (obviously). It was tasty!

If only we had more time...
Back Yard Burger
Krystal (This one is all Steve! I had no idea anybody eats here outside the hours of 2:00-4:00am.)
Momma Goldberg's

Finally, I can't give all the credit for my Thankgiving weight gain to the aforementioned restaurants. Many other dishes contributed to my badonkadonk. I'd like to thank my mom for the cornbread dressing, chicken 'n dumplings, pot roast and chocolate cheesecake, without which, I might never gain weight!