Spending the day in Ocean Springs

Over the weekend, I began to feel extremely self-conscious because as I began to bounce back from the head cold/sinus infection that came from the depths of Hades, I also got my appetite back.  With a vengeance.  I kid you not.  It was almost like I was hungry. seriously. every. other. minute.  It was the story of my life:  We had just eaten and I was hungry again.  (No, I'm not pregnant.) 


I was the epitome of a bottomless pit and kept asking the guys if they were hungry like every other second it seemed like.  

So, that leads me to the next restaurant we visited during our trip...The Shed in Ocean Springs.

This is a BBQ joint that I've heard a lot about and QB perks up considerably when BBQ is the topic at hand.  

Of course, since it's Mississippi (me) vs. Texas (him), there is a considerable amount of BBQ trash talkin' before, during and after a carnivorous barbecue frenzied food fest : smoked pork vs. beef brisket, tangy mustard & vinegar vs. sweet & spicy tomato-based sauce - you get the idea.  You should hear us discussing the subject of tamales!!


I digress.


First of all, you know it's good 'Cue when this is the first thing you see from the road.  BBQ joint adjacent to the RV Park.  You know it to be true.

You order, sit down at one of the picnic tables and wait for your name to be called.

They call you first name, verify your last name and the food is yours, awaiting consumption.  I ordered the baby back ribs, potato salad and baked beans and sweet tea - QB and Nate got the beef brisket.  

This barbecue is no joke!  The meat had been cooked "low and slow," no doubt about it.  It fell off the bone and if I do say so, I licked my fingers and smacked my lips.  Oh what?  We're in public? 

The beans were pretty good (not the best I've ever had but good) and the potato salad I lurved most especially - the kind with potato skin and bacon in it.  The sauce was tomato-based, sweet with a subtle spicy kick to it.  QB grabbed and applied Crystal's Hot Sauce because he could have taken it a little spicier.  We didn't hear much from Nate during lunch.  He was busy eating.  

Truth be told, I grew up on the tangy mustard & vinegar-based sauces, so I'm still partial to that.  But the sweet and spicy is a good change and it wasn't overly sweet - it was a good balance.  I would definitely go back, but honestly, I'd probably get the beef this time around.  The sauce just seemed to compliment the brisket better, in my opinion.  But I'm also curious about the pulled pork, so further inspection is needed.  !


Afterwards, we went to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art.  The live oak trees on the coast are gorgeous.  They lined Washington Street and the surrounding areas of Highway 90 and I love they way their tree limbs can drag the ground.

The museum was amazing.  The rowboat Anderson used to travel to Horn Island was hanging in the gallery above our heads and the bike he rode was on the other end.  

The connecting Community center really is incredible.  Anderson wanted to and was then commissioned to paint the interior walls in the 1950s and it is mind-boggling to me how the different murals he painted have such a cohesive fluidity to them. 

There were no breaks in the design and each design, conceptually, blew me away - from far away what looked like a mere pattern was in actuality an animal or wave or whatever it happened to be.  (I could take pictures as long as I didn't use flash) 

His daughter, Martha Anderson, stopped by the museum while we were there and QB spoke to her briefly.  The University Press did a book with her and he worked with her.  Who knows where I was wondering at the time, so I didn't get to meet her.  :(

Below is his room from his home on Horn Island.

And below, some Shearwater pottery he did and a really cool table he carved!  QB and I wanted one for our very own.  Oh well.

Other works from Coastal artists were on display.  Dusti Bongé was one of the artists on display - Mississippi's first modernist.  Really cool stuff.   (See Anderson's bike at the far end?)

I don't remember who did this one but I loved the spider web!

Sadly, the one place we didn't make it to during our Coast weekend was Le Bakery in Biloxi, the Vietnamese-owned bakery with traditional cuisine, French bread and other goodies.  It's on my list for next time!!

Good Eats in Bay St. Louis

Mmmm...Bread.  The Mockingbird Cafe in Old Town (the Arts District) Bay St. Louis is known all around these parts for its "Serious Bread," Mockingburgers and their desserts.  My current frame of reference is the bread because we had quite a bit of it during our trip. 

 

 

Local art and photographs are for sale and displayed on the walls.  I loved the decorative bottle candles below.

 

 

We stopped by the cafe and our friend, Nate, struck up a conversation with the owner, Allen Jensen, whom he's talked to before.  They have a a lot to talk about because Mr. Jensen is a retired oceanographer and Nate is a physicist and topographer, working with weather-related projects at Stennis Space Center.  He let us go back into the kitchen and see how things were made - Mr. Jensen not Nate.  :)  (Notice below the tiles on the wall behind him - it's a pizza oven that the previous owner installed but they don't use it.  It's so pretty.)

 

We saw the sourdough mix that was sitting and waiting to rise - he let us smell it.   We spotted the racks of cranberry oatmeal scones, a couple of which he shared with us! 

As you can tell below, it was made like a drop biscuit, rather than cut into a triangular shape.  The scone's consistency wasn't like a regular scone either, almost a cross between shortbread and a biscuit.  This was a little lighter, more cakey in texture.  So different from the norm, but still YUM!  He also brought out a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies that was divine - just oozing brown sugar goodness.

Mr. Jensen shared his bread-making process - and skills - with us.  He usually makes bread on Thursdays and Fridays, which can be up to 300 pounds of dough.  Normally it is all from scratch.  Only very rarely does he use a pre-made starter mix for his bread. 

Below is the oven he uses right now.  Next door to it on the left is a huge brick oven that needs a $2000 renovation, so as soon as they can swing it, they'll be able to bake bread more often than just two days a week.  The Vulcan keeps the place way too hot.  Before he bought the Mockingbird, Mr. Jensen used church kitchens and just about any other place that would let him bake his bread!

There is some major machinery in his kitchen - the heavy-duty mixer (on the left) below made the drive from South Dakota.

 

What was really impressive was the fact that Mr. Jensen apprentices with bread makers and chefs from all over the United States, perfecting his recipes and techniques.  It shows.  We bought a loaf of rosemary garlic sourdough that was some of the most flavorful bread ever!

"It's not just bread, it's serious bread," Vivian shared with us, which is, of course, where they got the brand name.  Pretty clever!  He and his wife, Vivian, attend the Ocean Springs Fresh Market and sell a lot of bread there on Saturdays.  

They were so nice to us and we really appreciate their time in showing us around.  (Later that evening, we cooked dinner at home and toasted our rosemary garlic bread with Parmesan cheese and added some Basil pesto.  Holy cow.)



Even though we'd stuffed our faces with some serious bread, we needed some real food for lunch, so we decided to backtrack to a little cafe called "Buttercup," just right around the corner.  It was a charming yellow shotgun house and it's just too bad that the weather was foggy and cold!  It would be great to sit outside and enjoy a Gulf breeze.

Inside, The Buttercup is bright, cheery and decorated for Mardi Gras.  It doesn't have the old-house, folksy ambiance of Mockingbird, but everyone was friendly and talkative and the servers were attentive. 

I ordered the seared white tuna salad and it was delicious!  It came with the house tomato vinaigrette dressing which I honestly couldn't tell had any flavor at all.  It cannot be blamed on the restaurant because I was still on antibiotics from being sick and it definitely affected my taste in a major way.  :(

QB had the Turkey & Cheese Melt and Nate had the portabello veggie sandwich.  Their sandwiches came with Bay Fries, which were roasted new potato wedges with rosemary.  They were happy with their sandwiches.  

We went back a couple of days later, the morning of our departure, to try their breakfast.  I have to say, unfortunately, there are no pictures of the omelets but trust me when I say they were delicious.  They ran out of the Crawfish Etoufee we had been eying, though I had the veggie omelet and it was really tasty.  It was well-seasoned, had good veggies in the middle and you can't go wrong when it oozes a little extra cheddar cheese.  This time, I got the Bay Potatoes with my meal.  The rosemary-roasted potatoes were a hit with my palate.  Compliment that with delicious, strong Community Coffee and you've got my vote!

 Above is my favorite birthday acquisition!  Thanks Mom & Dad Lee!

Sunday Morning Rambles - Bay St. Louis

This past weekend, we visited a friend in Bay St. Louis and had a great time exploring the Coast.  

Even five years down the road, efforts are still being continued to rebuild after Katrina.  I wondered how exactly I wanted to say that because one would think it might be different after all this time.

I was honestly shocked at how the land, trees and houses still have a stripped, bare look to them, even after all this time.  I'm not sure what I expected.  I knew it wasn't going to be what I remembered from my trip there as a teenager but it was still surprising to see so many concrete slabs and with steps that went to no home at all, stilts standing up by themselves upon which once houses stood.  It was sad.

Many people have rebuilt enormously massive homes along Highway 90 yet so much of it remains untouched.   

Bay St. Louis was a lovely little town and we did quite a bit of walking around it.  Granted it was January, but it was eerily still and quiet.  One part of Beach Boulevard is closed off and still being worked on, but you can easily walk it.

I woke up Sunday morning at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m.  Needless to say, I never wake up that early but my internal alarm clock knew I wanted to go on a walk.  So, since I couldn't get back to sleep by 7 a.m., I went ahead and got up.

The weather was chilly.  It was so quiet outside and you could hear the seagulls chattering away.  Our friend lives right down the street from the Bay.  His house wasn't harmed nor his neighbor across the street because the ground was a little bit higher; however, his neighbors (and the rest of Bay St. Louis) weren't so lucky.   And is storage facility where his things were kept was blown away and ruined. 

As a matter of fact, there is an old bus station in his front yard.  It would be such a terrific studio!  Apparently everyone tells him this. 

So, I headed down Beach Boulevard to find a good spot to sit on the beach, but it took a little while because the slopes were steep and not conducive to people accessing it.  But I noticed a pier way, way down the Boulevard (not this one below!).

This used to be the old public pier but as you can see, got washed away.  Below is a side view and you can also see the new bridge across the Bay.

The train came by at least every 45 minutes.  I liked to hear the whistle and watch it head across the Bay. 

Directly on the corner by the railroad tracks was what I can only assume was a former bank?

I walked past Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church, which barely came through Katrina and had to be restored.

St. Stanislas College, a Catholic boarding school, has a pier but it was closed, although that was a good place to get to the beach.  Below you can see the train crossing the Bay.

I found a place to sit and watch and listen to everything.  It was a large mound of hodge-podge concrete slabs covered in mud and barnacles.  The sea gulls kept chattering  and crying as they flew by and landed on the sand nearby and killdeer coasted back and forth on the air currents.

The church bells began to ring for 8 a.m. Mass.  A Pelican slowly flew by a few times, lighted on the pier posts and skimmed the water.  Later I spotted him diving into the water for fish. 

The walk was just the thing I needed.  Time to think, time to breathe, time to be.