[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by ACTS Mom

Go to any Cracker Barrel to get southern food -- including cornmeal muffins, pinto beans, turnip greens, fried okra, sweet tea...and blackberry cobbler for dessert.

And the breakfasts are huge...yes, with grits. You can even get country ham.

I'm hungry.........but I find everyone makes their tea too sweet for me. I hate the syrupy kind.

Oh yes, slice up some tomatoes, cukes, green peppers and green onions with that and I would think I had died and gone to heaven.....

[beachmouse]

Most restaurants I'm in are perfectly happy to make your tea half sweet and half unsweet, which tends to make the sugar level far more tolerable for me.

[daytonadewd]

Originally Posted by dreamingmark

Can a person get "southern" food in Florida? (YEAH for fried chicken, grits and sweet tea!) and are there any foods that are uniquely Floridian? AND/OR... southern foods unique to FL? thanks
P.S. I am a Northerner.. however had the fortune of being raised by a lovely lady with roots in the great state of Georgia!

Here is an exceptional place to check out called the Yearling Restaurant in Hawthorne, FL (between Ocala + Gainesville). It is definitely Southern, Old Florida dining -- it's a bit of a dive with really amazing food and delicacies including fresh cooter and frog legs!:
The Yearling Restaurant - Cross Creek Florida's Fine Cracker Cuisine.

Make sure you visit when authentic blues musician Willie Green is playing.

I love it as a day trip as you'll have an experience and food you can't find at Cracker Barrel for sure!

But be sure to dress down (i.e. like you're going hiking/fishing) as nobody there cares about where you're from anyway as it's NOT the Cheesecake Factory at the Mall (and your D&G handbag + matching shades will clash with the original tacky charm and one of the reasons I enjoy going there in the first place).

[MAniacTHW]

As far as "unique" you can get Fried Gator Tail if you look hard enough. In Tampa it's done at Skippers and Bally Hoo's (spelling?). Just don't stay in the Skipper area after dark.

[a.vought]

fresh cooter

I dare not ask...

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by AnnieA

I'm hungry.........but I find everyone makes their tea too sweet for me. I hate the syrupy kind.

Oh yes, slice up some tomatoes, cukes, green peppers and green onions with that and I would think I had died and gone to heaven.....

Nobody in my family makes their tea nearly as sweet as what you get in those restaurants. Fast food sweet tea is the worst, that stuff is so sweet I can't even drink it most of the time.

[NativeFloridan]

Heres just a few....Buddy Freddy's in Brandon, Branch Ranch in Plant City, Stumps, Village Pankake House, Colonade, Jimbos BBQ, Wrights all in Tampa, Vittles and Deep South BBQ in Brooksville, Poseys Oyster House in Panacea, Boss Oyster and The Grille in Apalachicola, The Gazebo and The OAks in Marianna, Nick's in Blue Mountain Beach, Temptation in Boca Grande

[hashbrown]

I recommend Sonny's. Delicious.