Come on back ya'll!
When I moved here, I learned a few “rules” that are very important to survival here in MS when dining out with the natives: 1.) Asking for “Thousand Island” dressing at your favorite local hot spot during dinner forces your waitress into convulsions and utter restaurant mayhem. It’s called COMEBACK and ask for it by name. Though most Mississippi dressing critics would say that comeback is nothing like that “Island” dressing. Pssst…it’s the same thing! 2.) Ordering “off the menu” at lunch is for suckers or Yankees (In my case, one in the same.) You order the “Plate lunch of the day” no matter WHAT IT IS and you say thank you and eat it. Oh and for the love of god, DO NOT order cola with your plate lunch. It’s called TEA and anything else is utter foolishness. 3.) Do not, under any circumstances, ever admit that you do not LIKE spicy food and never say something tastes SPICY to you. That is the equivalent of telling your mother on Mothers day that you’d rather spend it with the homeless man down the street who picks his nose and eats it.” It’s just not acceptable. Nothing is spicy to Mississippians and if it is they will never admit it. So, get out your TEA and start eating (portion control really comes in handy here.)
posted by Bentley at 1:23 AM
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Best House Salad Dressing: Hal & Mal’s Restaurant & Brewery (200 Commerce St., 948-0888)
I have to admit that I was skeptical about all the hoopla over “comeback dressing” when I first, well, came back to Mississippi. I’d read about Hal & Mal’s comeback in Jill Conner Browne’s “Book of Love,” and I’d wondered what was so special about it. So I ordered it when I arrived in J-town. It tasted like damned Thousand Island dressing, with a bit of spice thrown in. But then—inexplicably being that I’d always hated that Thousand Island crap —I kept ordering the stuff on my Greek salads and even on my Onion Ring Po-Boy (not on the menu; this vegetarian contocted it in order to stay in the po-boy game) and just to dip saltines into when it’s too late to wheedle more substantial chow out of the staff. Go figure: Now I’m hooked on the stuff. Downright, bonafidably addicted. Is it because it’s a special secret blend of spices? Maybe. Or maybe Hal spikes it with something especially evil and addictive. Whatever the truth, Jacksonians love the hell out of this nectar—and even give it to Yankees for Christmas presents. Go figure.
—Donna Ladd
Second place: Mayflower Café (123 West Capitol St., 355-4122)
Third place: Dennery’s (330 Greymont Ave., 354-2527) and Cherokee Inn (1410 Old Square Rd., 362-6388) (tie)
COMEBACK DRESSING
This is a great salad dressing or sandwich sauce.
1 cup Miracle Whip
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1.4 cup chili sauce
1.4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup grated onion (chop if using blender)
2 cloves garlic
Place all in blender or food processor and whiz until well blended.
If no blender, grate onion and mix well. Refrigerate. Better made ahead of time. Keeps well for several days.
ROTISSERIE SAUCE
This sauce is similar to Comeback Dressing. My in-laws used it for dipping boiled shrimp in place of cocktail sauce.
To blender or food processor bowl, add:
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup mayonnaise
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1 tsp. black pepper
Tabasco sauce to taste}
Whiz until well blended. Serve with shrimp or as salad dressing or sandwich spread.
Refrigerate. Better if made several hours or a day ahead. Keeps well for several days.
COMEBACK DRESSING
This is a great salad dressing or sandwich sauce.
1 cup Miracle Whip
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1.4 cup chili sauce
1.4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup grated onion (chop if using blender)
2 cloves garlic
Place all in blender or food processor and whiz until well blended.
If no blender, grate onion and mix well. Refrigerate. Better made ahead of time. Keeps well for several days.
ROTISSERIE SAUCE
This sauce is similar to Comeback Dressing. My in-laws used it for dipping boiled shrimp in place of cocktail sauce.
To blender or food processor bowl, add:
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup mayonnaise
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1 tsp. black pepper
Tabasco sauce to taste}
Whiz until well blended. Serve with shrimp or as salad dressing or sandwich spread.
Refrigerate. Better if made several hours or a day ahead. Keeps well for several days.
Comeback is Delta Nectar; Savory Southern Ambrosia; the perfect compliment to a saltine cracker; a better addition to lump crabmeat or onion rings. I could drink the stuff STRAIGHT out of the old ketchup bottle you keep it in when you make it!
Best Plate Lunch: Cherokee Inn (1410 Old Square Rd., 362-6388)
Driving toward the Cherokee Inn between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., you’ll notice a steady flow of vehicles headed that way—patrol cars, office workers’ cars, repair workers’ trucks—all filled with people with one thing on their minds: plate lunch at the Cherokee. At the Cherokee, plate lunch is—as it has always been—meat, vegetables, bread and iced tea. Said menu is posted for you in two places on those blackboards you write on with neon colors, topped with a lighted Budweiser sign, so they’re easy to spot. On Thursdays, their busiest plate-lunch-day, the boards read: Roast beef with mashed potatoes, string beans, salad, tea included, $6.99 plus tax. You’ll find desserts like peach or blueberry cobbler ($1.75), ice cream, 75 cents extra; lemon ice box pie or pecan pie ($1.75); and cookies’n’cream pie ($1.75) Personally, after eating that plate lunch, I don’t see how you could even hope to have room for a dessert. Make the sweet tea do, that’s my advice.
—Lynette Hanson
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