Bayview Gourmet

"Life is too short; eat dessert first."

Travel Post #13: Bayview Gourmet is located in the heart of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. A few options off of their menu include:

• Crabber Burger: Grilled Gulf Coast lump crab cake, dressed, topped with provolone cheese
• Kotzum Avenue: Homemade fresh Quiche with crab, asparagus, mushroom, and spinach or ham and swiss.
• Fried Green Tomato BLT (my favorite): Toasted wheat bery bread with fried green tomatoes, crispy bacon, lettuce, and a garlic mayo

New Years Day 2011: We visited the restuarant on January 1st of this year and were pleasantly surprised with complimentary black-eyed peas (those who know me are aware that I wasn't pleasantly surprised, but others were). This is how Southerns prepare for the New Year. In the South, eating black-eyed peas is thought to bring prosperity and good luck. While we were eating lunch, a local news reporter came to talk to us about our traditions for New Years Day. We made sure to bring up the Pennsylvania tradition that includes eating pork and sauerkraut.

"Pennsylvania Dutch superstition says that eating pork brings good luck because a pig roots forward to look for its food, while chickens scratch backward and cows stand still."

Check Out Their Website: http://bayviewgourmet.com/

Realizations

Travel Post #8: Realizations-The Walter Anderson Shop

Realizations is a small shop located in the heart of downtown Ocean Springs, Mississippi. This shop houses wall-to-wall Walter Anderson pieces. The artwork is stripped of color allowing the purchaser to paint using watercolors of their own choice. I personally have quite a few pieces of artwork that have been painted to match the décor of my home. Not far down the road you can find the Walter Anderson Museum that contains his family’s artwork and a biographical video.

Brief history: Walter Inglis Anderson was born in the early 1900s in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a painter, writer, and naturalist. Anderson lived most of his life rather reclusive on Horn Island in Mississippi. He painted the primitive conditions that he experienced such as the landscapes, animals, sea creatures, and foliage. He then passed away in 1965.

Check Out Their Websites: http://www.walteringlisanderson.com/

http://www.walterandersonmuseum.org/

The Shed: BBQ & Blues Joint

Travel Post #7: The Shed BBQ

I travel to Ocean Springs, Mississippi a few times a year and there is one stop that I make regardless of our predetermined plans… The Shed! Visiting this BBQ joint is certainly an experience, yes experience! Upon arrival on the property you immediately become a ShedHed. The décor includes license plates hanging from the ceiling, classroom chairs as seats, horse statues, old car parts, and anything else you could imagine being found in a junk yard. The backdrop is, of course, a clear shot of the bayou. To give you the full picture I found this paragraph on their website: "Once there was a guy that spent most of his out-of-class time at Ole Miss scouting out, jumping in, and rummaging through dumpsters and street side garbage piles. The highlight of his week was the "night before trash day." After graduation, he wanted to move back to the Coast. One sobering morning he surveyed all he had collected over the years. It was Everywhere, it was Insane: warped used two by fours, old tin roofing, bent nails, ugly windows, mountains of pure, unadulterated junk! Not knowing what to do with it and not willing to part with a single plastic bucket or warped record, he built a trailer out of the larger parts and loaded the rest on top of this homemade junk hauler (picture here the Beverly Hillbillies on steroids) and moved back to Ocean Springs."

Now that you know what to expect aesthetically, the food is superb. I recommend the pulled pork sandwich with a side of potato or pasta salad. A majority of others select the ribs. You really can’t go wrong when selecting items off of their menu.

Check Out Their Website: http://theshedbbq.com/