Seaside, Florida: The Food

Part of the fun in going out of town is to eat good food; or that's what Bob and I always say.  When I go to a tropical place I must have seafood everyday.  This trip was no different.  Here are some of the meals my friends and I had last week on vacation.

My first meal in Seaside was at a place called The Great Southern Cafe.  It was a very short walk from our beach house and we enjoyed our meal outside on the porch at the cafe.  I had Crab Cakes Benedict and Smoked Gouda Grits....the stacks consisted of a slice of english muffin, fried green tomato, crab cake and poached egg topped with hollandaise sauce.  YUMMO!!

We had dinner at The Boatyard in Panama City Beach later that night.  I had Shrimp and Grits with a mushroom gravy sauce.  OMG...another yummo meal!  The 3 of us shared a bottle of red zinfandel wine. Truly an amazing meal!

One day for lunch my friend and I got Lobster Rolls from the Shrimp Shack in Seaside.  I also had a Rum Lemonade with my meal and we sat on a deck overlooking the beach during our meal.  Perfect lunch on a perfect day!  Check out the big ole pieces of lobster on the toasted roll with drawn butter to drizzle over the top.

Darrell made spaghetti and meatballs one night and we sat up on the third floor veranda to eat. We had salad and way more garlic cheese bread than 5 people could possibly eat.  Delicious!

Okay, two of us decided to try The Great Southern Cafe again for breakfast on one of our last full day in Seaside.  This time I had what is called Grits A Ya Ya....behold a pile of Smoked Gouda Cheese Grits with Spicy Shrimp and a gravy of spinach and cream with Sweet Potato "Hay" on top.  Well, it was heaven in my mouth!

For dinner on our last night on the Panhandle we at at Firefly restaurance in PCB.  We were served warm bread with the butters below.  Cream cheese butter, tomato butter and raspberry butter.

A friend had told us about the She Crab Soup at Firefly which you cannot find in many places.  It's not the same as any other crab soup I've ever had.  It had large pieces of crab meat in it and was pure delight with the puff pastry biscuit and drizzle of sherry.

My entree at Firefly was the Filet with Crispy Softshell Crab over Shrimp and Bacon Risotto and Asparagus.  OMG.  This is one of the top 3 meals I've ever eaten in my life. The filet was tender enough to cut with a fork and the crab was wonderful. Large pieces of shrimp could be found in the risotto when I was just expecting little chopped up pieces.  If I would have died after eating what's on this plate I would have been totally satisfied.  I returned my plate with not one drop of food left except the rosemary sprig.

My friends both got the Filet Stuffed with Cream Cheese and Feta over Potatoes.  They both loved it!

Yes, we were completely stuffed but as it was our last gourmet meal out we pressed on and ordered desserts anyway.  Here is Peggy's Vanilla Bean and White Chocolate Creme Brulee.

I ordered Blueberry Bread Pudding.  It was wonderful but I could not eat all of it. I was so stuffed!

Darrell ordered the Chocolate Bombe.  It was creamy and choclately. He loved it!

So there you have it. It's been difficult returning home to a more regular diet as I am craving seafood and cheese grits everyday now.