Back in January, an assistant editor from Food & Wine magazine called us, asking for our thoughts on the restaurant scene in Birmingham. In the October issue, Ratha Tep writes about her visit to Birmingham, noting that "Both the city center and the suburbs have some astonishingly good food—from delicious deep-fried oysters to exquisite sushi."

Ratha, who told me she "absolutely adored the city," gave high marks in the article to Cafe Dupont, with its "perfectly fried, fat Apalachicola oysters and his okra with horseradish-spiked beurre blanc," Icon, where she "fell hard for the spicy, tangy green-tomato soup," Jinsei's "stellar Japanese dishes", and the fish at Hot & Hot Fish Club (although she got confused and put it in Homewood).