Here is the second of my trilogy in four parts on the Al.com article Huntsville's 20 Most Distinctive Dishes. The first of which was last month and the other two will be posted over the next couple months.
6) Locally brewed beer by Olde Town Brewing and Straight to Ale. (Huntsville) Available at various locations.
Olde Town Brewing Co.: They began operations in the summer of 2004 and were the first brewery in Huntsville since the repeal of Prohibition. The brewery was devastated by a fire in 2008 and the company never seemed to recover. They officially closed shop in early 2011 before I was able to sample some of their wares.Straight to Ale: Born in the basement of co-owner Dan Perry, Straight to Ale first hit the market in the spring of 2010 and as of the summer of 2012 was only available in North Alabama. Their beer names are either puns such as "He Ain't Heffe" or locally themed such as this sample, Monkeynaught IPA. A tribute to the monkey's dispatched to space from Redstone Arsenal during the pioneering days of NASA. This is almost a glass full of tangerine or sweet grapefruit. It's very citrusy (as they advertise) and downright fantatic. If you like the citrus fruits, you'll probably love this.
7) Fish Taco's ~ Bandido Burrito Co. (Huntsville)
Certainly one of the best things on this list. BBC is not a lot to look at from the outside. Occupying what looks like a one time Burger King. In fact, the exterior doesn't hold much promise of good things within. But don't ever judge a book by it's cover. This place is great, led by the fish tacos. They come 2 to an order with Mexican Rice and Refried beans. (both sides were very tasty) A piece of lightly seasoned tilapia each, topped with cabbage, tomato, onions, cilantro and a white sauce made of dill, lime juice and Mexican crema. They are utterly delicious.What made this dish is the sauce. It added a great deal of depth.
I can also recommend the Combo Burrito. Nothing earth shattering about it. Just plain tasty.
8) Jalapeno Cheddar Bread ~ FredBread (Huntsville) Available locally.
What we have here is basically a loaf of sandwich bread studded with jalapenos and cheddar cheese. On it's own with a bit of butter this was great. I didn't get a chance but I think it was just screaming to be made into a grilled cheese sandwich. Very tasty stuff. What really makes this is, it's bread. Nuff said.
I recommend purchasing this on court square at Harrison Brothers Hardware. A wonderfully restored hardware store from days gone by.
Chicken Berlin ~ Cafe Berlin (Huntsville)
A breaded chicken breast topped with Jarlsberg cheese, sauteed onions and sliced green apple. It was okay but really lacked any depth. The chicken was plain breast meat, the breading wasn't particularly well seasoned and even the Jarlsberg cheese, onion and apple didn't kick this up a notch. Here, the sum was exactly that of it's parts. What made this dish was the red cabbage that was a side. It was fantastic.
I can also recommend the bratwurst platter.
10) Big 8 Pizza ~ Big Ed's Pizzeria (Huntsville)
Pepperoni, sausage, ham, green pepper, onions, fresh mushrooms, green and black olives. A seemingly nice combination however the thin crust was way too weighed down by all the toppings and too much water leached out and in general, the whole thing was a mess. Nothing made this dish. It's just ill fated.
I can however highly recommend Big Ed's pizza. We had a simpler pizza with just pepperoni and black olives and it was fabulous. The best pizza in the city.
So there you go. Some great and some not so great stuff. Check back in a few weeks for part III.
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