Lower Alabama Caviar. One of my favorites. When I brag to my friends about how great the food is in this place I tell them you just have to come down and taste for yourself to believe how good it is.
As luck would have it, Lulu’s owner, Lucy Buffett, was willing to share the recipe for one of her eatery’s signature items that she often makes at home.
Prepared at the restaurant in 20-gallon batches, the recipe has evolved from one that Lucy discovered when John Coleman, whom she describes as “a barbecue aficionado, redneck lawyer and rogue gourmand,” arrived at a party with a black-eyed pea dip.
After prying the recipe from her friend, Lucy gave it a twist or two of her own and thereby lay claim to the black-eyed pea concoction. Named L.A. caviar, a reference to her years in Los Angeles and her roots in Lower Alabama, the dip ($3.95) has been served since the original Lulu’s Sunset Grill, opened on Week’s Bay in 1999.
http://blog.al.com/scene/2008/04/food_detective_lulus_signature.html