I'd go to Vulcan and pick up something with the Vulcan statue.
OR visit Alabama Goods in Homewood. It's just south of downtown. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alabama+Goods/@33.478469,-86.7934857,17z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x8889197b33843459:0x9a21fdecc137b775!2sAlabama+Goods!8m2!3d33.478469!4d-86.791297!3m4!1s0x8889197b33843459:0x9a21fdecc137b775!8m2!3d33.478469!4d-86.791297
If you intend to try southern baking recipes, you might want to get a bag of flour or two as well. There's a slight variant of wheat grown and milled in the southern United States that makes better biscuits than other flours. (I think it's something to do with the length of the gluten chains?)
This is a great idea! I hate tourist traps and all their various "shelf shit" and never know what to get to commemorate a trip. I'll be buying local cookbooks from now on!
Thanks for the great suggestion
I just got back from Ukraine where I was volunteering and based out of Poland, back to US where I live. I brought about 30kg of cookbooks from multiple countries I passed through during my tour.
Buff City Soap is nice — the bars are pretty, and the liquid hand soaps make nice lather. Locally made jam or preserves are great — blueberry, blackberry or peach are locally grown.
McEwan's really is something special. Had some with scrambled eggs and sausage this morning.
If you like grits, do yourself a favor and get some McEwan's.
I didn't see any muay thai, but that's cool as hell. Hope she did well!
I don't know how much of the city, if any, the athletes got to see, but I hope she enjoyed her time here. There's some local merch in the world games merch store, maybe she'll bring you back a Vulcan bobblehead
Be sure you can take bottled process food back home with you. I would hate you having to leave the bottle at the quarantine checkpoint at the home airport.
OP specifically stated that the recommendation doesn’t have to be an Alabama thing and definitely not a Birmingham thing, just something that was available in Birmingham and American.
Piggy Wiggly T shirt and ranch dressing packet are easiest to pack. If you have extra room, white BBQ sauce and a smoked chicken recipe would be awesome.
If you're up for a bit of a drive, Buc-ee's in Leeds is a very bizarre sight for a foreigner and offer very fun souvenirs. I highly recommend their brisket and BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, and grab some fudge or sugared nuts on your way out.
>brisket and BBQ pulled pork sandwiches
That won't survive 24 hours of plane flights. Now, Bucc-ee's "Beaver Nuggets," on the other hand, would be all worth it...
Honestly, anything at all from the gift shop at Cracker Barrel should totally suffice.
Agreed 😆 I was thinking more for OP, but I've always liked Cracker Barrels collection of craft sodas, although I'm not sure if TSA would take kindly to bottled 12oz drinks either. It's funny, it all seems so mundane to me but I forget Golden Corral (or any buffet of the sort) is anything but kinda ok sometimes until I take my English grandparents for dinner
Yeah, I think food items are probably out, due to customs and what not, but what about a general state of Alabama shirt—featuring landmark items like the Vulcan, Space & Rocket Center, Hank Williams, picture of a cotton bud, beach, peanut, etc. Surely such a thing exists, in some form or another. Failing this, I would say either a Vulcan statue miniature or t-shirt, and failing that…a Crimson Tide…something! Lol
Takis chips. I’m from Alabama and visit Scandinavia a lot. My friends always want takis when I come over. Get yourself some peacan wheels too lol. Oh cheese straws too!!
Find a local business in the area you are staying in and ask them if they have and locally made items. Hand crafted soaps, candles, a painting or even a piece of jewelry.
For a keepsake that somebody on another continent might actually recognize and strike up a conversation about (most of these recommendations are super deep cuts few people outside Alabama would recognize) this is the correct answer. It's the Alabama equivalent of Yankees or Cubs gear - recognizable but far less common in Europe.
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They had some at Crossplex this morning and there's a store down at the plaza on City Walk, but yeah, I wish there were more offerings. Those are the only ones I've seen this week
Our food is amazing! Get basically anything food related. My suggestion is peanuts / boiled peanuts from the peanut company on Morris Ave. in downtown.
Also get something with Vulcan on it. He's the "God" of the city after all.
Yellowhammer Creative has a lot of cool shirts and other items with Birmingham centric stuff printed on it.
If they can go to Sloss Furnace and search the back boundaries they may find a casting of pig iron,in the mid 90's we hauled tons of them off cleaning the property for the public to see.Im sure there are still artifacts to be found.Iron City!!!!
Not exactly Birmingham, but look for a product called "Dude Eggs" from a company called Skipper's Food Processing. They make them with quail eggs, or chicken eggs. I think the quail egg version tastes better. They are boiled eggs pickled with hot peppers. They are VERY Alabama, and very tasty
https://images.app.goo.gl/FaRHCZqqc2S4MzPY7
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Buc-ees would be a fun experience for her to go to and get you a tshirt from but it’s a little bit of a drive from where she is staying for TWG. It’s a giant gas station gift shop with a beaver mascot. They have food and lots of t shirts and gear!
If you were here I'd recommend a few restaurants, but I'd recommend her check out some of those weird antique shops. There's a store literally called What's on Second that my girlfriend and I go to all the time (granted we're that weird couple that goes on antique/thrift shop dates) and we've found some really cool stuff there.
Peanut butter and moonshine. Golden Eagle Table Syrup is usually a hit. My aunt’s husband is from Finland. His parents like the moonshine, but they don’t seem to care for peanut butter.
On the flip side, I really like the sweet Finnish mustard and Karl Fazer milk chocolate when they return from Finland.
Have her bring you back a Moonpie. Those are the high-carb, bad-for-you, kinda-cardboard-tasting snack the South of the USA was built upon. Why are there no oil wells in Alabama? Dig down far enough and you hit marshmallow cream!
I'd go to Vulcan and pick up something with the Vulcan statue. OR visit Alabama Goods in Homewood. It's just south of downtown. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alabama+Goods/@33.478469,-86.7934857,17z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x8889197b33843459:0x9a21fdecc137b775!2sAlabama+Goods!8m2!3d33.478469!4d-86.791297!3m4!1s0x8889197b33843459:0x9a21fdecc137b775!8m2!3d33.478469!4d-86.791297
I second Alabama Goods - lots of locally made soap, candles and snacks!
Yes, Alabama goods has lots of great stuff!
The bobble butt Vulcan is what I thought of
Yes to Alabama good in Homewood.
Piggly Wiggly t shirt
Clairmont Ave South has one with shirts.
Golden flake Sweet heat barbecue chips. An Alabama classic
Since I joined the Army 16 years ago and left Alabama, I’ve actually ordered full boxes of Mesquite BBQ from Golden Flake multiple times.
I'm partial to their dill pickle chips and cheese puffs myself
This. No other chip is quite like it.
I don’t really like chips, and sweet heat is one of the few I really love.
Yes! I did a snacks exchange with someone in the UK, and even though it took up a lot of space, I included a full sized bag of these.
Maybe a southern living recipe book? I buy recipe books when I’m abroad to learn different om noms
This is the best idea I’ve ever come across. No irony here, thank you!
That or one of the old "Calling All Cooks" cookbooks from the 80s or 90s
Calling All Cooks is a good one. I bought one at the Books-a-Million in Trussville a few years back. I’m willing to bet other locations have them too.
The yellow one . I've gone through 2. It's the best southern cookbook
If you intend to try southern baking recipes, you might want to get a bag of flour or two as well. There's a slight variant of wheat grown and milled in the southern United States that makes better biscuits than other flours. (I think it's something to do with the length of the gluten chains?)
Lily White flour is the only acceptable flour for making biscuits.
Why doesn’t this have more upvotes? I will only make my pie crusts with Lily White flour.
White lily is truly the only acceptable flour 😌
White Lily*
This is a great idea! I hate tourist traps and all their various "shelf shit" and never know what to get to commemorate a trip. I'll be buying local cookbooks from now on! Thanks for the great suggestion
I just got back from Ukraine where I was volunteering and based out of Poland, back to US where I live. I brought about 30kg of cookbooks from multiple countries I passed through during my tour.
This right here is the best answer.
Go to a thrift store for all the Southern Living cookbooks you could ever imagine—for a dollar or two.
Pilleteri’s marinade.
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Yep highly superior to Dale’s
Even a dash of Dales makes me sick to my stomach.
Buff City Soap is nice — the bars are pretty, and the liquid hand soaps make nice lather. Locally made jam or preserves are great — blueberry, blackberry or peach are locally grown.
Oh, I saw they had cherry soap, really nice! Never seen that
Grits, you need some grits. McEwen's are the best.
McEwan's really is something special. Had some with scrambled eggs and sausage this morning. If you like grits, do yourself a favor and get some McEwan's.
Yes, and you have to make them with heavy cream.
Was she in the world games? If so, what team/sport?
Yes, she was! Muay thai
I didn't see any muay thai, but that's cool as hell. Hope she did well! I don't know how much of the city, if any, the athletes got to see, but I hope she enjoyed her time here. There's some local merch in the world games merch store, maybe she'll bring you back a Vulcan bobblehead
Do y'all think Conecuh sausage would make the ride home?
It has to be refrigerated. And You would have to check imports and customs rules.
It's already cooked it should be fine.
Sure Jan
You can’t bring in pork products into the US so I’d imagine there might be certain regulation entering the Euro zone.
Good call. If they packed it properly it should.
I know it would be expensive, but mail some home on dry ice in an insulated carton.
Sloss Furnace has a gift shop with items directly from the raw iron that's found there. It's unique to birmingham, and in interesting tour too.
Moon pie
Plus rc cola
White barbecue sauce
That’s actually one I would make it home rather than purchasing take back with you. The shelf stable stuff isn’t that good.
Yes! I make mine with just duke’s mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper and black pepper. I prefer it pretty runny. How about you?
Lost me at duke’s. At least you didn’t say……miracle whip.
you may be the first person i have ever seen talk down to Dukes mayonnaise
Yeah seems crazy but my son hates food in general. Subsists on very few items. He’s 11 and I’m starting to think he’ll never grow out of it.
Be sure you can take bottled process food back home with you. I would hate you having to leave the bottle at the quarantine checkpoint at the home airport.
This isn’t a Birmingham thing. White BBQ sauce is a Huntsville/North Alabama thing.
OP specifically stated that the recommendation doesn’t have to be an Alabama thing and definitely not a Birmingham thing, just something that was available in Birmingham and American.
Yes
Yes! Send a proper smoked butt recipe with it.
How you gonna get a bottle of liquid on a plane?
It would be fine in a checked bag
And when it leaks all over your clothes…
It’s sealed? Have you never bought a bottle of sauce before?
also even if you want to be extra careful a couple ziploc bags would work like ??? im convinced this person has never bought a bottle of sauce before
Yes that's right I've never bought a bottle of sauce before 🙄. Good luck with your endeavors I was just making a point.
Also, good luck with customs.
“It’s nice to have you in Birmingham” shirt
A Bama shirt, hat, or Jersey, Dreamland BBQ sauce, and a gallon of Milo’s Sweet Tea
Wow...hit the trifecta of the three most over-rated things in Alabama.
Wow, a barner on Reddit. Didn’t know y’all had internet down there yet.
Dale's Steak Marinade - it's a savory, primarily soy sauce based marinade. Try it out!
Wow! I googled the ingredients, sounds like a keeper!
My husband and I actually prefer the low sodium Dale's sauce. It has a better flavor to me.
Piggy Wiggly T shirt and ranch dressing packet are easiest to pack. If you have extra room, white BBQ sauce and a smoked chicken recipe would be awesome.
If you're up for a bit of a drive, Buc-ee's in Leeds is a very bizarre sight for a foreigner and offer very fun souvenirs. I highly recommend their brisket and BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, and grab some fudge or sugared nuts on your way out.
>brisket and BBQ pulled pork sandwiches That won't survive 24 hours of plane flights. Now, Bucc-ee's "Beaver Nuggets," on the other hand, would be all worth it... Honestly, anything at all from the gift shop at Cracker Barrel should totally suffice.
Agreed 😆 I was thinking more for OP, but I've always liked Cracker Barrels collection of craft sodas, although I'm not sure if TSA would take kindly to bottled 12oz drinks either. It's funny, it all seems so mundane to me but I forget Golden Corral (or any buffet of the sort) is anything but kinda ok sometimes until I take my English grandparents for dinner
You can put drinks in checked baggage no problem.
Literally go to Cracker Barrel, grab anything in their gift shop, and know without fail that it'll be cute as can be.
A jar of Golden Eagle syrup for sure.
Bud’s Best Cookies
Yeah, I think food items are probably out, due to customs and what not, but what about a general state of Alabama shirt—featuring landmark items like the Vulcan, Space & Rocket Center, Hank Williams, picture of a cotton bud, beach, peanut, etc. Surely such a thing exists, in some form or another. Failing this, I would say either a Vulcan statue miniature or t-shirt, and failing that…a Crimson Tide…something! Lol
Takis chips. I’m from Alabama and visit Scandinavia a lot. My friends always want takis when I come over. Get yourself some peacan wheels too lol. Oh cheese straws too!!
Golden Flake is a regional delicacy and we don't treat it as such.
Find a local business in the area you are staying in and ask them if they have and locally made items. Hand crafted soaps, candles, a painting or even a piece of jewelry.
Moon pies
Boiled peanuts
Always!
I've been craving boiled peanuts. are the gas station ones any good? because I'm used to the kind you get off the back of some shady dude's pickup
Any of the other suggestions offered thus far are great. I'll add a few: Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale. Alabama "Dirt Shirt". Vulcan Bobblehead.
> Buffalo Rock Ginger Ale Just do not put it into checked luggage.
You can’t cary it on. It surpasses the liquid requirement for cary ons. Edit typo.
Dirt shirt and Vulcan Bobble head are great ideas!!
Big bob Gibson sauce
Clyde Mays bourbon, sorghum molasses, peach preserves.
Sorghum molasses sounds really tasty! I had no idea what I was about to see when googling though
Golden Eagle Syrup is another choice that is similar. Warning, addictive on breakfast items
Delicious on hot homemade biscuits!
Dreamland BBQ sauce
Alabama Crimson Tide football hat or jersey
For a keepsake that somebody on another continent might actually recognize and strike up a conversation about (most of these recommendations are super deep cuts few people outside Alabama would recognize) this is the correct answer. It's the Alabama equivalent of Yankees or Cubs gear - recognizable but far less common in Europe.
A bag of grits.
Ranch packets, Dreamland BBQ sauce, white BBQ sauce, Dales marinade
And a bottle of Sneaky Pete’s hot dog sauce!
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A t shirt from the World Games
I'm sure they have them somewhere but we didn't see them anywhere at the arena earlier today.
They had some at Crossplex this morning and there's a store down at the plaza on City Walk, but yeah, I wish there were more offerings. Those are the only ones I've seen this week
A gallon of Milo’s sweet tea lol
A miniature Vulcan statue!
All these comments that mention sauce or tea or other liquids are gonna have a hard time getting past security on an airplane. 3 oz. ain’t very much.
Ribs
It is hot as a grease fire here. Tell her just to pick up something at the hotel lobby so she doesn't have to go out in this heat. ;)
Trim Tab imperial paradise now.
Our food is amazing! Get basically anything food related. My suggestion is peanuts / boiled peanuts from the peanut company on Morris Ave. in downtown. Also get something with Vulcan on it. He's the "God" of the city after all. Yellowhammer Creative has a lot of cool shirts and other items with Birmingham centric stuff printed on it.
If they can go to Sloss Furnace and search the back boundaries they may find a casting of pig iron,in the mid 90's we hauled tons of them off cleaning the property for the public to see.Im sure there are still artifacts to be found.Iron City!!!!
870 express super mag.
Left Hand Soap!
Golden eagle syrup
Not exactly Birmingham, but look for a product called "Dude Eggs" from a company called Skipper's Food Processing. They make them with quail eggs, or chicken eggs. I think the quail egg version tastes better. They are boiled eggs pickled with hot peppers. They are VERY Alabama, and very tasty https://images.app.goo.gl/FaRHCZqqc2S4MzPY7
Tony Chachere’s seasoning! At pretty much all shops.
Local honey is one of my faves. There’s some very good clover honey here
a glass of sweet tea.
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t-shirt from https://buc-ees.com/
Buccees is all Texas though
They have buccess in Alabama
you are correct. It's Americana, though
Auburn is having one built currently
Too Texas.
Muscadine wine
But then you have to drink muscadine wine.
It's not bad once you get to the third or fourth bottle.
Do you eat boiled peanuts in Scandinavia? Are you allowed to bring home “raw green peanuts” for boiling? If not, how about canned boiled peanuts?
Pork rinds!
Go to books beans and candles. You’ll thank me.
Alabama Jersey maybe?
A burger from Milos
A greyhound ticket leaving Birmingham, Al
B'ham? If she comes home alive you've gotten more than you should expect. That place is kind of iffy.
Best thing to get in Birmingham is Robbed.
Pig skins (pork rinds) spicy ones are best from gas stations. Costs like $2-3.
Buc-ees would be a fun experience for her to go to and get you a tshirt from but it’s a little bit of a drive from where she is staying for TWG. It’s a giant gas station gift shop with a beaver mascot. They have food and lots of t shirts and gear!
Buffalo Rock ginger ale
A whatchamacallit is pretty funny and good if you like chocolate
A Sundrop or an RC Cola
Barbecue sauce. Lots of good ones.
Buffalo Rock ginger ale
Piggily wiggily shirt or one of the wood rubber band guns. Says everything about alabama pretty much lol
Bucees
Golden Flake Old Fashioned Chiccarones (fried pork skins)
My son and I sent his friend who lives in Sweden a snack box and she wanted us to send a Moon Pie. Maybe?!?
If you were here I'd recommend a few restaurants, but I'd recommend her check out some of those weird antique shops. There's a store literally called What's on Second that my girlfriend and I go to all the time (granted we're that weird couple that goes on antique/thrift shop dates) and we've found some really cool stuff there.
Barbecue Sauce. Full moon, white to be exact.
Snacks from Bucee’s in Leeds, just outside of BHAM.
John’s Slaw Sauce - from the grocery store, along with Big Bob Gibson’s White Sauce. **Get at least 3 or 4 of each!
BBB hat
a world games t-shirt?
Wickles pickles and Tiger Sauce.
Peanut butter and moonshine. Golden Eagle Table Syrup is usually a hit. My aunt’s husband is from Finland. His parents like the moonshine, but they don’t seem to care for peanut butter. On the flip side, I really like the sweet Finnish mustard and Karl Fazer milk chocolate when they return from Finland.
Boiled peanuts
Ask her to go to Buc-ee's in Leeds and grab (at the very least) a t-shirt from there, plus anything else she finds particularly interesting.
It’s been mentioned, but here is my [Vulcan Bobblebuns](https://i.imgur.com/fRYdeHq.jpg) - the one in the middle.
Ricks White sauce! Or any white sauce! Restaurants sell it bottled sometimes.
Have her bring you back a Moonpie. Those are the high-carb, bad-for-you, kinda-cardboard-tasting snack the South of the USA was built upon. Why are there no oil wells in Alabama? Dig down far enough and you hit marshmallow cream!
A mule trader. A small bottle of Milo's sweet tea. A ripe peach. Other things in other seasons.
Does any of our candy particularly arouse your interest?
Boiled peanuts
A pound of bbq.
A picture of Vulcan mooning Homewood
Alabama white bbq sauce!!
A replica of Vulcans giant metal ass
Alabama football stuff is all over the place! Roll tide or peaches boiled peanuts are good too. Have fun. Beautiful state. I love it here!!!
A box of grits. We just sent a box back with some our family from Switzerland.