Home : The Voice : April 2002  

Where To Find Comfort Food
Around The Synod

by Jane Hines

Comfort food for my grandsons' generation may be pizza, and for that we would recommend the white pizza at Milano's on Maryland Way in Brentwood, Tennessee, but that's a pizza that adults might like and we know that there would be a hundred other pizza places that would be on our grandsons' list because as far as we can tell, if it's pizza, they like it. We see no need to pursue that subject any further.

Traditional Southern comfort foods that we know of would include Shrimp Gumbo made by Joanne Hartwell in her kitchen in Fairhope, Alabama, served to her family and a fortunate few friends. Or cheese grits, creole shrimp or chicken breasts in mushroom gravy, made by Synod Executive David Snellgrove at his home in Batesville, Mississippi. His personal favorite comfort foods are soupy navy beans with cornbread and wieners and sauerkraut.

The best creamed potatoes that we know of are served daily at the Daylight Donuts & Café at 116 North Royal Oaks Blvd. in Franklin, Tennessee.

For old fashioned chicken and dumplings and bread pudding, we recommend the Bright Star Restaurant at the corner of Third and 19th in historic downtown Bessemer, Alabama. They have other delicious items on their menu as well.

For breakfast, we heartily recommend the Wilson House Inn Bed and Breakfast near Ocean Springs, Mississippi. They get your day started right with plenty of ham and eggs, homemade biscuits, homemade fig and pear and strawberry preserves, big bowls of fruit, grits, and bountiful supplies of juice and tea and coffee. Their phone number is 1-800-872-6933.

The best restaurant we've been to this year is The Chimneys on Beach Boulevard in Gulfport, Mississippi. Mary Ellen Alexander of Long Beach took us there back in February when the camellias were blooming and the view from our table on the front porch was a panorama of white sand and the blue waters of the Gulf. (Not a gambling place in sight.) The cheesy crabmeat casserole they serve is fresh and delectable. Their coconut chess pie is the best dessert we've ever had and we are people who KNOW about desserts.

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