The Best Southern,Creole, and Cajun food: Mississippi Gulf Coast

The Mississippi Gulf Coast is a food lovers’ paradise. Of course, you can get excellent fried chicken and bread pudding but the Mississippi Gulf coast is the best place to get fresh seafood. Gulf shrimp, oysters, and crab legs with the crab are where you start. Frankly, some of the best food can be found at a convenience store. At least I forget the local catfish because Southern Mississippi is the catfish capital of the world. Southern, Creole, and Cajun foods are an original U.S. Southern specialty.

There is no place in the United States in my opinion with such a diversity of food. Aside from typical American food such as hamburgers, the Mississippi Gulf Coast specializes in Creole, Cajun, and Southern foods. The deep south has its own very unique food culture. Add to this great mouthwatering food the Southern hospitality and you have a combination worth traveling for.

Possibly my favorite dish is blue crab. I love the soft shell version. Red beans are a favorite of mine, I eat them without rice (most eat red beans with rice).

Crawfish season in the winter

Crawfish season is a real treat for locals and visitors. An event called a “crawfish boil” is held for birthdays, holidays, and any excuse to get together. The crawfish boil includes boiling fresh crawfish in a huge tub out of doors. Throw in corn on the cob, sausage, onions, and seasoning. Many variations of the boil exist including using shrimp. When the items are boiled well, they are tossed on a trestle table for the gathering to eat family-style. Don’t forget the beer for adults and sweetened iced tea for the kids.

Local restaurants offer many local dishes usually including freshly caught fish from the Gulf of Mexico. Fried green tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and blackeyed peas are widely available. A big favorite is turnip greens served as a side dish. Some sit-down restaurants offer collard greens and crispy frog legs. The American South has much to offer the food lover including unique foods for breakfast.

A Southern staple is sausage gravy over buttermilk biscuits. People often eat catfish for breakfast along with grits. Grit is served almost everywhere as a replacement for potatoes. That brings up a good story. I had traveled around the United States for many years visiting all but three states. I thought that I knew a bit about regional foods. A friend of mine from

Rice is more popular than potatoes

Louisiana told me that when he grew up the family rarely ate potatoes. Instead, they ate rice with many dishes and meals. You will find that to be true along the Mississippi Gulf Coast if you eat at a local restaurant that does not particularly cater to tourists.

As I traveled around, I noticed the price for oysters on the half shell. When I moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I was surprised at how “cheap” they were here. $4 per dozen a few years ago when they were at least $16 per dozen in Califonia. The price has gone up with everything else but the variance seems to be holding. Oysters are a staple on the Coast.

I have hardly mentioned two foods that are not unique dishes to the country but the way they are prepared on the Coast is different. Fried chicken and fried catfish. You can get fried chicken at almost all convenience stores freshly fried and about every restaurant. The seasoning used varies from place to place but lots of places serve hot spicy chicken fried with the skin on. Some restaurants specialize in only Chicken but it’s not the same as you get in Los Angeles.

Catfish is a staple

Catfish, that’s a state food in Mississippi. I went to a restaurant once when I first arrived. The menu said they had fish and chips. I asked the server what kind of fish it was (I was from California). She responded that it was “fish”. Not satisfied, I told her that there were redfish, tuna, and other kinds of fish so their fish would have a name too.

She responded, “It’s fishy fish”. Enough said that told me it was catfish. I have since learned that anytime the menu says fish, it is always catfish.

There is an insidious effort underway by people in Asia to sell an Asian catfish called Swae. The price is much lower than Southern farm-raised catfish and it is invading our restaurants. I always ask when I go to a restaurant if they have local catfish, under state law they must tell you if it is local or imported. There is no way that I am going to eat foreign fish when we have a great industry right here in the U.S. Sorry for the lecture.

Along with the types of food that I have mentioned come barbecue restaurants that sell most of the items above as side dishes along with pork ribs and sausage. Pork ribs are far more popular on the Mississippi Gulf Coast than beef ribs. Those open-pit barbeque foods are to die for.

Sweet tea is the state drink

One of my favorites is the Shed in Ocean Springs located on a bayou with live music. What a great place to enjoy lots of great Southern food.

When you ask for iced tea which is very popular here, you need to specify un-sweetened or you will get sweet tea. Some places have tea so sweet that your fork will sand up in the glass. Other non-alcoholic beverages that are very popular are Dr. Pepper and Barqs rootbeer. Barqs was created on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Dr. Pepper is a southern drink. Pepsi is available but Coke is the most popular soft drink. Ginger beer is popular as well.

There is so much Southern comfort food available it’s hard to know where to start. Wake up and consider, whether will I eat Creole, Caju,n or Southern food today. Eat some fried pork skins or rinds which are like potato chips on the Coast. The best thing to do when you arrive on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the first time is to visit one of the casino buffets. You can taste a small number of many types of Mississippi cuisine. Try the black-eyed peas and did I mention the bread pudding or banana pudding?

You have to try sweet potato pie and carrot souffle. These dishes will leave you so satisfied that you need no dessert. But, who needs dessert, we eat it because it’s good.

Special deserts of the season

Did you know that there are several deserts made just for seasons? King cakes are made and sold only around Christmas. These are truly unique, they come with a baby Jesus inside. When eating a king cake with a group, the one who gets the baby Jesus has to buy the cake the next year.

At Easter, coconut cakes are popular. A large white cake with some variations covered with coconut and with coconut filling as well. These are usually only sold around easter.

What better way to enjoy great food than listening to blues music? After all Blues music originated in the Mississippi Gulf and elsewhere in the state. While munching on some snacks, try a local favorite, fried alligator. My wife loves Aligator sausage served as the main course at one of the best restaurants. Alligator goes well with some of the local craft beer.

The Magnolia state is known to be a place where you can get a great burger also. The last soda fountain closed in Gulfport. Each of the Gulf Coast cities had at one time at least one soda fountain serving burgers. They are sadly all gone now.

Lots of fresh fish caught by local fishing fleets

I mentioned that fish was a popular item on the menu. My favorite fish is Red Fish Red Drum. These fish were endangered due to overfishing a decade ago and they have recovered. Only a few restaurants serve redfish which is served blackened with cajun creole southern spices and is an excellent main course.

The local fishing fleets of which there are many are a source of fresh seafood all year. Visitors can buy shrimp, crab, and other fish right from the boats when they come in. I watched once when someone from Atlanta brought their ice chests to buy about 100 pounds of shrimp.

The best chefs offer it on their menu some with crawfish or shrimp topping. You can order a while Grooper which is a big fish. They hang over the platter and are often served whole. Rosetti’s is a restaurant connected to a fish market. You go to the market buy your fish and walk down the counter and have it cooked.

When you visit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the best way to enjoy the food culture is to eat at local restaurants or buffets. Anyone here can point you to a good restaurant near where you are located. There are many award-winning chefs at local restaurants. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is an oasis of food culture.

Lots of foods from generations of locals

Check out any photos I have attached for foods available at local grocery stores for home cooking. If you are from anywhere but the South, you may not understand why these foods are so important to people who have grown up in the South. There is a much greater variety than I mentioned above as you can see from the photos.

Before wrapping up this article, I must mention that not all Cajun Creole Southern foods are fried. One great food that I did not mention above is gumbo. This amazing dish is prepared by everyone to their tastes. You will never taste two that are the same. Regardless, almost all restaurants will have it listed with soup or instead of soup.

It would help if you tried gumbo while you are here. This dish is so famous that there are gumbo cookoffs held at various locations on the Mississippi Gulf Coast every year.

Try jambalaya, a rice dish that is not fried. Boiled shrimp, oysters on the half shell, and grilled fish. Many choices for those who can not or will not eat fried foods. It’s a myth that all people on the Coast eat just fried food. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with a bit of fried chicken from time to time. Balance it with Bodin sausage which is packed with rice and pork.

Of course, you can find sushi, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Greek, and most other ethnic foods all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. If you want steak there are many amazing steak houses here. You will find your favorite food along the Mississippi Gulf Coast without looking very hard.

If you like our articles, please subscribe below. Try a couple of our popular articles: Why I Decided to Retire in Ocean Springs, Mississippi and Why you need to retire on the Mississippi Gulf Coast! along with 21 reasons why people move to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

If you would like to know what to do when you arrive for your visit, read this article: 22 Things to do on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Should you want to stay at a vacation rental property, try ChristiesGulfBeachRentals.com