Mississippi Munching

Snack Box went in search of fried chicken to the source: Mississippi. However, fish and other such delights became the focal point of the gastro tour.

I generally try to avoid American states with towns called Coonsville. But my love for fried chicken got the better of me. So I went to Oxford, a small college town in north  Mississippi. Its beautifully kept town square is home to an array of good restaurants and bars. Thank fuck because there’s not much else to do unless you like American Football, shooting the breeze (literally), or driving your urban tank around all day. I ate and drank in pretty much every restaurant and bar there.

I went looking for fried chicken but it wasn’t as widely available as I had expected. Whenever I asked for authentic fried chicken I was directed towards gas stations. At first I thought I needed to work on my accent as something was being lost in translation. In fact, most petrol stations offer an array of chicken, pork ribs and other such fried delights. Like the Irish breakfast roll, every station offers their equivalent: chicken on a stick. It is what it is. I don’t think I need to go into any detail.

In fact, the real local delicacy in this part of the world is catfish. Known as the stupidest of all fish, catfish hang out on the surface of water and can pretty much be caught by hand if you’re quick enough. Most local haunts will have one catfish dish or another.
Ajax Diner on the square offers soul food. Portions are big, options are many and staff are very friendly. Actually the people in this town are all great craic. They get my shitty sense of humour which is enough for me.

The square also boasts the Square Pizza Co (can you guess what shape their pizza is? You guessed it, dodecahedron) and a sushi bar, Two Stick. Both are good quality and affordable.

Another place of note is just outside the town in a village called Taylor. The one and only restaurant in Taylor is also called Taylor. I heard a guy calling his dog by the name of Taylor. This is a one-horse town. But what a horse. If you thought the name of the restaurant was unassuming, so is the menu. Catfish leads the charge southern fried in a beautiful coating and served with such delights as collard greens, corn, coleslaw, black-eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, chips etc. Other options include steak, chargrilled chicken, etc. Beautiful, cheap and authentic.

Oxford even has its own gourmet restaurant. Hey, and guess what? It’s also inappropriately named. Snack Bar is an interesting little joint in the corner of an old mall not that dissimilar to Crumlin Shopping Centre. Between the location and the name, my expectations were low. But this is one of those examples of restaurants where location or anything else has no effect on the droves of people queuing up almost every night to get in. They could have called it Shit Food and located it in a portaloo and folk would still come.  An interesting mix of gourmet comfort food is on offer, like Lobster Macaroni and Cheese, Timpani (individual lasagne made with Italian sausage meat), catfish and chips, homemade 100% meat sausages (a celiac friend ordered these and didn’t die so they must be pure meat).

At $15 to $22 for a main course, Snack Bar was by far the most expensive restaurant we ate in. All the others in the area offer entrees for between $10-$15. Would I go there specifically for the food? Probably not. But in fairness, I did travel thousands of miles in search of fried chicken only to find that it was available in petrol stations and nowhere else. So I wouldn’t trust me either.