We got into Savannah around 5:30. When we got out of the car I remembered what hot really is. It is miserable, unbearable, impregnable, terrible, awful, soul crushing and generally unbelievable. Thank goodness our hotel lobby and room had the most powerful air conditioning ever. I have taken back all my snobbish opinions about air conditioning...well, no, actually I haven't. I believe that if it's 85 or below you shouldn't use air conditioning...but if it's hotter than that have at it. Savannah, when you're in an air conditioned car, is quite lovely. Trees with Spanish Moss, beautiful squares, a river, awesome historical architecture and beach only a little drive away.
After we checked in we went to a restaurant my father had found on the internets. It was called
Uncle Bubba's and it was the worst meal I've had in quite a long time. Now, before any of you think to point it out, we all realized that this was not an especially good or true month for oysters and yet they had them on their menu and said yes, they were serving them. So, yes, in retrospect you should go with your internal oyster calendar regardless of what the menu says...but...My father and I both ordered one dozen raw oysters. They came. They came not on ice and not in any way cold. Or, rather, they had a slight lukewarm kind of chill that comes from sitting in the refrigerator. I ate two. They didn't taste off, exactly, but they tasted like nothing good would come of eating any more. My father had similar feelings and we simply pushed our plates aside. My mother ordered the chargrilled oysters and seemed relatively satisfied with them. The parents also ordered a bucket of steamed oysters. I don't know what it is but I like oysters in two forms: raw or fried and since steamed is not one of those forms I was planning on passing on the bucket. When the bucket came my mother found that the first few oysters she pulled out were entirely closed...not little tell tale opening to ensure that they were a) cooked and b) alive when it happened. My father tried just a bit of one and declared them bad. Our server and his manager did the right thing and took both the raw and steamed oysters off of the bill but that doesn't change the fact that they sucked.
You know what else was pretty forgettable? Their steamed shrimp especially compared to the shrimp I had
here. The shrimp were puny. My mother questioned whether the butter served with them was real butter or fake butter. The top of the shrimp was sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning but the spice wasn't really distributed throughout the shrimp...it was like an after thought and an attempt for authenticity. They were entirely forgettable though, at least, they weren't bad.
I ordered the crab bites appetizer. What I imagined from the description and what I ended up getting were (I'm sure you're not surprised) drastically different. These bites resembled hush puppies far more than they resembled crab. And the little resemblance to crab they had was the bad kind. The shredded and breaded and flavor masked of frozen crab cakes from some terrible restaurant. Point: don't go to Uncle Bubba's it was a royal disappointment.
For dinner we went to Huey's On The River (it's strange how few of these restaurants have websites), a New Orleans styled restaurant on, well, the river and recommended by the college buddy you will see shortly (though I was a bit skeptical since he said that Saigon was one of his favorite restaurants). I had a cup of the gumbo and the fried green tomato appetizer. My parents each had a bowl of the gumbo. My mother then had a baked potato while my father had their shrimp and grits. I liked the gumbo and only added a little hot sauce to it. The cup was a good amount though my serving managed not to include any of the andouille sausage...my father let me have a bit of his and I liked it very much. The fried green tomatoes were good and crispy hot. The remoulade didn't have as much texture as some I've had in the past but it wasn't bad.
