Irondale - fried green tomatoes
Irondale - fried green tomatoes
Last week I ran down below Birmingham to look at some equipment that is being auctioned. These auctions of woodworking equipment are great deals and have been running across the country almost non-stop for years. But it's certainly a symptom of the downside of NAFTA. Almost all furniture manufacturers have had to go offshore to manufacture or procure competitively priced products. All of these furniture mfg's going out of business seems just like what happened to our textile industry a decade or two earlier.
Ok, back to tomatoes. On the way back home, I was driving into Birmingham and it just happened to be lunch time. So I veered eastbound on 20 to Irondale, to try their fried green tomatoes. I'm thinking the Irondale cafe was in the old southern movie Fried Green Tomatoes, and I had never tried 'em.
The Cafe was cute enough. The parking lot was packed. And the gals behind the counter were cranking, filling plates with fried southern delicacies. Well, when I ordered, they were out of fried green tomatoes, so I tried the fried okra along with the baked greek chicken. Then, before I arrived at the cash register the green tomatoes were ready - So, I ended up with Fried and fried along with a healthy chicken breast.
Since I almost never order fried anything, I was having plenty of twinges of guilt. It was all really good. The baked greek chicken was awesome. And, these guys really know how to fry. But, It's not like any southern fried green tomatoes I've ever had. The batter was closer to a tempura than the cornmeal batter I remember