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By Root 1078 0

local treasures (peppery Delta tamales, Biloxi flounder, Belzoni catfish) and such saccharine Dixie eccentricities as pink velvet frozen salad (crushed pineapple, Cool Whip, cherry pie filling, and condensed milk) and “fruit salad” that is canned pear halves topped with grated yellow cheese. Proprietor John Ballas said that the recipe for his kitchen’s aromatic yeast rolls came from a friend’s mother who was a Home-Ec teacher at Greenwood High and that the spaghetti sauce is made from a recipe that his father obtained years ago by writing a letter to Heinz. Our favorite dishes on the menu are shrimp and crab Newburg, fried oysters, turnip greens, and sweet, sweet tea. And pie.

Annie Johnson started working here twenty-eight years ago and has been the pie maker for the last fifteen. Her legendary mile-high meringues are built upon a fragile crust that she rolls out from lard-laced dough, the recipe for which she shared with us using such measurements as “a big handful of baking powder” and a “little palm of salt.” She makes the meringue by adding her simple syrup in a way that causes the egg whites to “jump out of the pot and whoop to a peak.” Coconut pie and chocolate pie are always on the menu, and it is one of the great gastronomic joys of the South to be in the front dining room during lunch and watch the breathtaking dome-topped beauties carried out of the kitchen to a counter behind the register, where the cashier expertly severs them into wedges that are taller than they are wide.

The Dinner Bell

229 5th Ave.

601–684–4883

McComb, MS

L | $$

The Dinner Bell’s reputation for grand southern meals has never flagged since it opened in 1945. Now run by the Lopinto family, who took over in 1981, it is the South’s last bastion of revolving table dining.

In the center of each round table is a lavish lazy susan. Service is boarding-house-style: spin the lazy susan and take what you want. When any serving tray starts getting empty, out comes a full one from the kitchen. Grab as much as you want and eat at your own speed.

It isn’t only quantity and convenience that make Dinner Bell meals memorable. This is some mighty marvelous food: chicken and dumplings, catfish, ham, corn sticks, sweet potato casseroles, black-eyed peas, fried eggplant, and fried okra. The dishes we cannot resist are the flamboyant vegetable casseroles supercharged with cheese and cracker crumbs—our kind of health food. Spinach casserole enriched with cream cheese and margarine and cans of artichoke hearts is good for the soul, not to mention the fact that it is scrumptious. To drink with all this good food, there is only one proper libation: sweet, sweet tea.

Doe’s Eat Place

502 Nelson St.

662–334–3315

Greenville, MS

D | $$$

Located on the wrong side of town in the back rooms of a dilapidated grocery store, Doe’s does not look like a restaurant, much less a great restaurant. Many of the dining tables are in fact located in the kitchen, spread helter-skelter among stoves and counters where the staff dresses salads and fries potatoes in big iron skillets. Plates, flatware, and tablecloths are all mismatched. It is noisy and inelegant, and service—while perfectly polite—is rough and tumble.

Doe’s fans, ourselves included, love it just the way it is. The ambience, which is at least a few degrees this side of “casual,” is part of what makes it such a kick. Mississippians have eaten here since the 1940s; for regular patrons the eccentricity makes the experience as comfortable as an old shoe. Newcomers may be shocked by the ramshackle surroundings, but Doe’s is easy to like once the food starts coming.

Start with tamales and a brilliant salad made of iceberg lettuce dressed with olive oil and fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Shrimp are usually available, broiled or fried, and they are very, very good, but it’s steak for which Doe’s has earned its reputation. “Baby Doe” Signa, son of the founder, tells us that it is merely “U.S. Choice” grade, which, frankly, we don’t believe. To us, it tastes like the primest of the prime, as good as any