Bizarre Foods Pensacola

Rob and I woke up early on Saturday to head to Pensacola Beach for "Taste of the Beach", a food festival held right on the water.  Over 20 restaurants set up in tents on the beach, selling small plates that sampled local favorites from their menu.  Several restaurants also had cooking demonstrations throughout the day.  When we read that Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods was coming to do a cooking demonstration, we knew we had to be there!  Rob and I watch Bizarre Foods all the time, constantly adding new cities and countries to our wanderlust list!

Even though the weather was hotter than blue blazes (pushing 95 degrees all day!), I was determined to keep our second row seats to see Andrew.  (We got there ~2 hours before he was schedule to come out!) We decided to alternate going out to pick out a small plate to try from different restaurant tents.  It ended up being a great way to try a ton of new things!  We tried the pork nachos from H2O, corn and crab bisque from The Dock, seafood mac & cheese from Frank and Lola's, bushwacker from Sandshaker, fish taco and bread pudding from Hemmingways, and Beach pops!  Everything was delicious!!

When Andrew Zimmern finally came out, he did not disappoint.  If I closed my eyes, I literally felt like I was just watching an episode of the show.  His voice is exactly the same in person and he is just as funny.  He made an heirloom tomato salad, a low country shrimp with sweet corn, and a savory cornbread-of course made in a skillet!  He also had many compliments for southern cooking!  He was extremely knowledge about, well, just about everything and it was just awesome to watch him cook.  He makes everything look simply effortless!


After his demonstration, we had the opportunity to meet him and get a few autographs.  As much as I begged him to come over and cook me dinner, he politely declined ;)

Linking up with Sami's Shenanigans