The Magic Tomato Eclectic Eatery

This weekend the wife and I were shopping (as much as I hate that) on the western fringes of the Hub City. When it became time for dinner we began to talk about different places. This can be a challenge for us, because we both have very strong opinions on what we want and where we want to go. After a vigorous discussion that could have rivaled some of the great debates of the 20th century, we decided to go somewhere that neither of had ever been before - The Magic Tomato.

This cozy, eatery is nestled quiet unassumingly in a strip mall located right in front of Oak Grove High on Old Highway 11. You notice two things when you open the door, first the scent of italian herbs coming from the kitchen and the terracotta colored walls, that are more warm and inviting than it probably sounds. Like I said it's cozy, a dozen tables at most. It has the feel of a European bistro or cafe.

After perusing the menu we settled on the Cancun Quesadini and a 14" New York Style Sicilian pizza.

Lets start with the Cancun Quesadini, I suppose this is Italian-Tex-Mex fusion. I think that once upon a time an apprentice pizza chef went to Mexico on spring break, had too much tequila and when he woke up slumped over on a table this is what he found in front of him...



It's thin rolled pizza dough full of peppers, onions, garlic, three kinds of cheeses, and seasoned chicken folded and grilled. They served it with a chipotle sour cream that was very nice. This was an ok experiment, not sure that it'll catch on and you'll see it at other Italian places. Not sure that I would order it again, but I don't have any negatives.

A few minutes later our server brought out our pizza, we ordered the Sicilian, which is a carnivore's dream. A thin crust New York style pizza with a very good marinara sauce, but the meats - Salami, peperoni, bacon, thick sliced ham we all fresh and flavorful. It had two different cheeses.

This was a good pizza, I was very happy with my order until...the server brought out Chicago style deep dish pizzas to the table next to ours. Before they could even dig into these three inch thick pie-sized pizza creations entree envy had set in with a vengeance.

I enjoyed the rest of our meal, but I couldn't help thinking that man, I should have gotten that, and you know I will, Oh, I will....Magic Tomato I'm coming back...

A & B Discount Grocery and Chinese Take-out

Today I picked-up take-out from one of Hattiesburg's most unique establishments A & B Discount Chinese Take-out. A combination of discount grocery, Asian market, and Chinese restaurant, A &B looks like the divest of dive take-out joints, but don't like the view from the street keep you from going inside and placing an order. They've got a modest dining area with about a eight or so booths and the place is usually full at lunch.



Today I was in a rush so I ran in for some take out. I've had it a couple of times and have never been disappointed with anything I've ordered. Their shrimp fried rice is much better than the average. Today I just ordered a couple of egg rolls and an order of six cream cheese ragoons.

The egg rolls were hot, crispy and very fresh. The texture was great and they were served with a high quality sweet and sour sauce. It was not a typical duck sauce, it had a little spice to balance out the sweet, a pleasant surprise.

The cream cheese ragoons may be the best in Hattiesburg. A & B keeps their fryers hot enough to create the crispy outside while the inside remains moist and flavorful. They're hand-made and larger than what you see at the buffet places.

It's hard to beat the low prices that A & B charges for their lunch specials and really all the items on their menu.

This little hole in the wall is one of Hattiesburg's best kept secrets. Plus, they carry items for cooking Asian cuisine that you can't find in many places like fish sauce, oyster sauce, Thai chili sauce and other Asian staples.

Blow Fly Inn - Gulfport

On Saturday night the wife and I dinned at a Gulf Coast landmark - The Blow Fly Inn. For years I have heard about the Blow Fly Inn. In the last year it has been featured by Guy Fieri on Food Network's Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Without question the location and setting of the Blow Fly Inn on the banks of Bayou Benard is one of the most picturesque locations of any dinning establishment on the Gulf Coast. As we arrived the sun was just setting over the bayou and it was a beautiful sight.

The restaurant was packed, we had to wait a little while to be seated (about 10 min.). The hostess was polite and within a couple of minutes of being seated a server was there to take drink orders. Our server on this visit was very nice, professional and attentive.

We began our meal with an order of onion rings. I don't recall Guy making a big deal out of the rings on the show, but they are something to write home about.

A huge helping of hand cut, wet battered onion rings cooked at the perfect temperature. They used a dredge of mainly flour with just a little corn-meal mixed in, seasoned to near perfection with a blend of cajun spices. The last ring on the bottom of the pile was as crispy as the first ones off the top - that's a rare find. Most of the time the grease drips down the pile and the last few are soggy and inedible. I am sure that at some point I've had better onion rings than these, but for the life of me I can't remember where or when.

Our server was polite enough not to serve the side salads along with the appetizers, a few minutes after the rings arrived she brought out the salads.

Pretty standard fare of lettuce, tomato, cucumber a few red onions with some boxed croutons. A pleasant surprise was that my blue cheese and my wife's ranch dressings were house made and better than average. Honestly, with that big plate of rings on the table, far from empty, I didn't wast much time on the salad.

I kind of had my mind made up that I was going to try the stuffed flounder that was featured on Triple-D, but they did have three weekend-specials that were very tempting. This weekend they featured a grilled Amberjack, a broiled redfish fillet and a fried grouper fillet served over rice, topped with a crawfish and shirmp etouffee.

I fought the urge to try one of the specials and ordered the stuffed flounder. Flounder is in my opinion the most under appreciated of our native near-shore species. The flavor is mild, delicate and is one of the easiest fish to clean and prepare due to it's unique skeletal structure.

The flounder was served whole (headless), it was bisected down the midline and the fillets were pulled back. Inside the chef packed the flounder with a generous amount of lump crab meat stuffing. The entire fish, stuffing and all, was flame broiled to near perfection.

The flounder was well seasoned on the outside with a cajun blend that also covered the suffing, it was garnished with lemon slices and parsley. The flounder was flaky and the texture of the slighty chared skin was compliment to the stuffing. The stuffing had plenty of crab meat and only way that this dish could have really been improved, in my opinion, is to use a slightly smaller amount of bell pepper in the stuffing. It sort of grabbed you instead of melding with the onions, celery and spices.

This is one of the better seafood dishes that I have encountered on the Gulf Coast since Katrina.

This portion of the review is provided mainly Mrs. Food Blogger. This was a unique interpretation for grouper. Grouper is also somewhat of an under appreciated local fare. It's usually found filleted, fried and stuffed in between a po-boy bun. This is one of Mrs. Food Bloggers favorite off-shore fish because of it's mild flavor and firm flaky texture.

The grouper was battered in a mix similar to that the onion rings were dredged in, but had more texture, maybe added egg whites? The breading was seasoned nicely. The fillet was served over a large bed of rice, and garnished with steamed whole green beans, carrots and what we believe to have been parsnip.

Over the entire dish was poured a better than average crawfish and shrimp etouffee. The combination of flavor was nice, the fillet had a little too much batter and may have been slightly over-cooked. Had the dish had more of the etouffee and a little less rice it would have garnered a better review.

We each sampled the others entree, and both agreed that the grouper dish was slightly above average, but the flounder was very good. In all it was a fine dinner, the service was well above average, the meal as a whole was very good, and the setting on Bayou Benard is second to none.

Fox's Pizza Den - Oak Grove

As a rule I generally don't review chain restaurants, but I've had a number of emails asking me to give Fox's Pizza Den, in Oak Grove, a try. This afternoon work had me in the area and I took in lunch.

A little back ground info, the origional Fox's opened in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania in 1971 and since then has spread across the country. They're just beginning to show up in Mississippi. They have two in the Hattiesburg area, the one in Oak Grove and according to their website, there is one in Sumrall.

I arrived after the lunch rush was over and the place was about 1/3 full, local franchisees Robbie and Sonya Gates were hard at work making sure things were running smoothly. One thing that really impressed me was that while I was there, at some point either Robbie or Sonya (or both) went to each table and thanked the patrons for their business. I know that's something pretty small and simple, but it made a big impression on this blogger.

Having heard good things about the "Wedgie's" I decided on the Beef, Bacon & Cheddar Wedgie.

This may be one of the most unique sandwiches I've come across, it's basically a pizza crust that has been baked fairly crispy, cut in half, layed with meats, cheese, mayo, lettuce and tomato, then folded over and cut in half again.



I'm not sure this photo dose it justice, this is a big sandwich. It's made from a 9" pizza crust (they also offer a 6").

The beef in this particular wedgie was sliced roast beef, and not too thin either, they give you a good portion of roast beef in this thing. The bacon was crispy the veggie's were fresh, but they could have used about half as much lettuce as was piled on mine.

I don't think I can give much of a food snob review of a Wedgie, I liked it. It was hot, the crusts were fresh baked, the meats were flavorful, the cheese was high quality and the veggies were fresh.

I had a sweet tea with my meal and it was satisfactory.

Readers know that I love to save money and Fox's makes it easy, check out these coupons you can right on your computer - Fox's Coupons. Wish I had found them before I went in...

Fox's moves way up on my list of chain's. I don't know if all Fox's are run like this one, but the Gates are doing something right!

KaRock's Famous Ka-Bobs

If you blink you may miss this roadside chicken stand on Highway 11 near the Jones Junior College campus. But, if you find yourself in Ellisville it's well worth a stop.

Finding myself in Ellisville and in need of a late lunch I decided to give KaRock's Famous Ka-Bobs a try. I've heard good things about this little place for years, and I found it to be mostly true.

You'll notice that this is a place that loves to play on the college theme, decked out in the cardinal and gold of JCJC the place is a mini-shrine to all things sports in Jones County.

When I walked in about 2:00 pm and saw that the fry cookers were still up and going it had to be a good sign. The place wasn't packed but there were a number of patrons eating. KaRock's is catered towards the college crowd but that doesn't stop it from drawing soccer mom's, blue collar workers and professionals from around town.

Proprietor Rocky Purvis put KaRock's on the map with his Ka-Bobs, but I decided on the Kat Kombo, which consists of three chicken fingers, a hefty order of seasoned fries, a bread stick and ice cold sweet tea.



The fries although I am pretty sure were not home cut were pretty good, they were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. That's a sure sign that they keep the fry cookers hot enough. Purvis was manning the fryers himself during my visit, it's a pleasure to see chicken fingers being breaded by hand instead of just opening a box.

The chicken fingers were cooked nicely. They were crispy and light with a flavorful breading. Again cooked at a appropriate temperature that left them crispy on the outside while locking in all the juicy goodness inside.

A bonus was the bread-stick that was served with the meal, it was soft and piping hot - a nice addition.

The "Rock Sauce" for the tenders was a bit better than your average run of the mill chicken finger sauce. It wasn't that it was spicy hot, but you could definitely tell that it was full of flavor. It works just as well on the bread stick as it does the chicken fingers.

It's not a four-star rated dinning establishment, and nor is it trying to be, but the ever expanding roadside chicken shack has a loyal following and now I know why.

The Catfish Wagon

Heaps of golden fried catfish have been served on these grounds for more than four decades. Originally this was the site of Herbert's Fish Camp and Music Hall. A few years ago, the original structure burned and Herb shut the place down. A small town in Mississippi just isn't right without a Catfish House. The Hodge family purchased the property and completely renovated it into The Catfish Wagon.

We've been to the Catfish Wagon, which is located on Hwy 42 just across the Perry County line from Petal, several times now. I guess it's pretty much in the Runnelstown Community. It's a very large, open family style restaurant. They're proud to serve only Mississippi farm raised catfish and will show you the boxes if you ask. The decor is rustic/redneck with at least a dozen deer heads, bass, bobcats, turkey and other indigenous game mounted on the walls.

The wife and I took in a dinner there over the weekend, I ordered the all-you-can eat catfish platter, while the wife ordered the five piece fillet dinner.

They start the mean by serving a large bowl of better than average cold slaw that's a sweet mayo based with sweet and sour undertones. It's finely chopped cabbage and I believe that it is home made.

My wife loves fried dill pickles and we got an order of those as an appetizer. I've had them before at the Catfish Wagon and they've been fine, but someone went crazy with the salt shaker on this batch and they were very salty, editable but just barely.

Now on to the main attraction - the catfish fillets.

The service in bringing out the platters was very reasonable, the fish was fried golden brown.

They use a very nice cornmeal fry that is lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika and possible a little onion powder. The fillets were crispy on the outside and flaky and tender on the inside. You can tell that they fry at a very high temperature. They offer raw onions and tomatoes to compliment the meal. Their home made tarter sauce is fresh, tasty and much better than any pre-packaged you may get at some places.

The fries were good, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. My wife reports that the hush puppies were pretty average, I rarely eat hush puppies and was more concerned with the fillets to be honest.

If you judge solely on the fried fillets, this is one of the better catfish houses in South Mississippi, their fries and hush puppies could be better.

I've never had a negative experience at the Catfish Wagon and I've eaten there several times. It's a bit out of the way and you could find yourself waiting half an hour at times, because they do a good business, but all in all if you love good fried catfish this place is well worth a try.

Lunch Buffet at Strick's

I am usually not a buffet fan, but there are a few exceptions and Strick's is one of them. Today I had lunch with some friends at the Original Strick's on 4th Street. The Strickland Family has owned and operated Strick's for years and it's become a lunch staple for an interesting group of college students, professionals, blue collar workers and an unusually large number of mail carriers.

This was only the second time I had been in since the renovations after Katrina, and the atmosphere is nice and kind of makes me feel at home. Yes, I am a redneck at heart...

Today their Southern comfort buffet featured several home style vegetables including small lima beans, butter beans, collard greens, fried squash and creamed corn. They buffet also included fried chicken, smoked chicken, smoked ribs and sausage.

I got a couple of veggies, a smoked chicken breast and a couple of ribs. The veggies were very good, fresh, hot and seasoned well. I used some of the pepper sauce on the baby lima bean. The fried squash was a little over cooked and got a little "mushy".

The smoked meats were the highlight of the meal. I'll be the first to say I really don't care much for the BBQ that Strick's makes, but they do a great job with their smoker. The chicken was tender and cooked to near perfection. The ribs were good, not great but good. If only I could sneak in a little of my favorite BBQ sauce it would be great.

On a side note, they have great sweet tea!