Southern Dish is brought to you by these sponsors.

Atmos Energy, proud to support the flavors and the stories that make Mississippi a one-of-a- kind culinary destination.

Mississippi Beverage Association.

This program proudly brought to you by Mississippi's own Foundation Gaming and Entertainment, owner and operator of Fitz Casino Hotel in Tunica and Waterview Casino Hotel in Vicksburg.

Foundation Gaming and Entertainment, Mississippians proudly supporting Mississippi.

In this episode of Southern Dish, we'll travel with former restaurant owner Lydia Chassaniol to two local kitchens that are serving up more than just good food.

Between live music and scenic views, these spots show why, here in Mississippi, sometimes the best places to eat are also the are also the best places to just hang out.

Two kitchens, two stories, one Mississippi.

Southern Dish.

There's no way to visit Tupelo without seeing signs of native son Elvis.

His memory lives on all over town.

And in this former hair salon turned honky-tonk, his spirit is still going strong.

Hey, I'm Lydia.

Lydia, Adam Morgan.

Welcome to Blue Canoe in Tupelo.

We've been open for about 15 years now.

I opened this place to feature original live music and a lot of really good eats.

So we tore down some old barns, found all this barn wood, and kind of fashioned this place together.

A little bit of a honky-tonk, a little bit of a music joint.

And food too.

You've got food as far as the eye can see.

All of the stuff on the wall I see, are these all bands that have performed here?

So we have a lot of live music.

All the names you see in the white are bands that have played up here.

Marcus King, Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, St.

Paul and The Broken Bones are huge these days.

The Alabama Shakes, Ryan Bingham.

We usually have four to six shows a week.

And as well, we have 46 beers on tap.

Got plenty of stuff from the state and plenty of stuff from all around the country.

This was a hair salon when I took over.

It had nine rooms and eight-foot drop ceilings, so it's been quite a conversion to turn it into what it looks like today.

So you went from hairspray to craft beer.

That's right.

Yeah.

And you've got a lot of interesting things on the wall in here too, I noticed.

Have they been brought in by patrons, or are these things that you've collected over the years?

Some have.

There's many things on the walls that our patrons have either made or painted, and then a lot of it I had, and a lot of it's just kind of come our way over the years.

“A lovely day for a Guinness.” My good buddy Miles Patton made this.

My good buddy Cass Phillips did the blues guys over here.

Oh, so these are Mississippi artists?

A lot of them are.

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, that's even better.

I like that too.

A guy I graduated high school with, Thomas Jackson, did the Kingfish painting up here.

I see Elvis is here on that wall.

There's- Elvis seems to be everywhere ... he's everywhere.

There's probably six or seven Elvis-oriented artworks in here.

We have a ton of people that come to Tupelo all months of the year to visit Elvis's birthplace and do various Elvis things.

Elvis Fest during the summer.

Oh, and I see we have a painting up here of looks like the King yet again.

Yes, ma'am.

It looks like a painting, but it's not.

What- It's actually made of old broken records.

A local artist at the time, Tim Carroll, put that together and donated that to us back when we first opened.

So the entire image is made from pieces of records that have been broken up.

That's right.

Yes, ma'am.

It's just chipped pieces of broken records.

Oh, that's very cool.

I think Elvis would like that.

I think so.

We've talked about the music.

What about the food in the kitchen?

Because after all, this is Southern Dish.

We serve familiar Southern cuisine with a unique twist on it.

I mean, you'll come in here and you'll find fried black-eyed peas that you're probably not going to find anywhere else.

That sounds good.

Pork and greens is a dish I think we're going to fix for y'all in just a little while.

It's a huge hit here.

We've won best dessert in the state five times from Mississippi Magazine for Connie's blueberry donut bread pudding.

Are we going to get to taste some of that too?

Yeah.

For sure.

Oh, that's great.

So blueberry bread pudding and pork and greens, did you say?

We've got the best bologna sandwich you'll ever eat.

The best bologna sandwich.

I'm telling, I know some people back home gonna think that's a wonderful idea.

Andrew, I'm Lydia.

I'm Andrew.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you so much for letting me come into your kitchen.

Of course.

Always.

It looks like pulled pork.

Is this a- This is pulled pork.

We season it a little bit with our pork rub.

Tell us about how you got to be a chef.

Well, I was a kid and I got hired out of Abner's when it first opened up here, and well, you start to like it, and you start to love it, then you get good at it so you kind of just stick with it and- So Abner's was where you got your training.

That was my first job.

So Adam put you to work, and here you've been for what, 10- 10 years.

Yeah, when it opened in 2011, I was like, we were like, "Finally, somewhere cool to go to- Yeah.

A cool place to be ... hang out."

And so- What you got going in those skillets over there?

This is our grits.

Oh, grits.

From Grit Girl Grits.

I think they're from Ox... They're out of Oxford.

Okay, so they're Mississippi grits.

That's good.

And our collards are just homemade collards.

We make a pot liquor for them.

So we got grits, and we got greens, and we got pulled pork.

I like the way this is building up.

Oh, yeah And then what you got over that third pot?

Is that a little gravy to go on top of it?

Oh, that's for our dessert later.

Oh, later.

Excuse me.

Okay, so first we're putting down a bed of grits.

Yes, ma'am.

Make a nice little nest.

That looks good.

I'm about to grab some tongs to get these greens nice and... You don't want too much juice coming up with them.

And then take your red sauce.

This is Carolina-style barbecue.

Just go around.

A little sweet, tangy type of sauce or whatever.

Well, that looks delicious.

May I try your pork and greens?

Absolutely.

All right.

Let me get a little bit of this.

That's excellent.

Got a kick to it.

I can see why the cornbread would be good to have, but this is very good.

I can see why that's your best seller.

Delicious.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So this is the Cathead Stage.

Yes, ma'am.

This is where all the musical magic happens.

All those stickers and all those names are accumulated from all the bands that have played over here for almost 15 years now.

Every band signs there?

I think pretty much almost every band has.

Wow.

When we opened up, it was plain white and boring, and- ... it looks like the side of a train car now.

Well, it's very iconic.

You do have live music almost every night.

Perhaps- Oftentimes, yeah ... oftentimes, almost every night.

Why was that a choice of yours, and has that had an impact on your business, do you think?

I think it's had a huge impact on our business.

When I opened this place, there wasn't a lot of places doing music in town, and I just felt like Tupelo deserved a little bit more.

We're focused heavily on the original music side of things.

That's really wonderful.

Now, I notice that we have a rather large blue canoe.

Yes, that's right.

When I heard the name of this place, I thought, "That sounds like a place I'd like to go."

How'd you come up with the name Blue Canoe?

That seems kind of interesting.

Yeah.

So there was a pretty legendary college band out of Oxford in the late '90s called Blue Mountain.

They have a song called "Blue Canoe."

I had all this going on and just couldn't come up with a name.

Happened to be listening to that song one day and was like, "I like that name."

Kind of rolls off the tongue well, and I could find a blue canoe.

I see one guy looks a little worse for the wear.

Yeah, he does.

We may just leave him up there.

He looks pretty comfortable.

He does look very comfortable up there.

Yeah.

Bounced it off a few friends and they liked it, and so I just said, "That's it."

All right, Chef Andrew, what is this dessert I've been hearing about that is so popular here?

It's going to be our Connie's Blueberry Doughnut Pudding, and right now I'm just heating up the blueberry anglaise for it.

So we get donuts from a local fried chicken place on the other side of town.

You get donuts from a fried chicken place.

That makes sense.

I love that.

So they're called Connie's Fried Chicken.

They've been around forever.

They're a local legend, and they're famous for their blueberry donuts.

And probably 13 years ago, Tammy, that works up here, she brought in a dozen donuts for the staff to eat, and the light just went off in my head.

I'm like, "We should turn these donuts into a bread pudding."

So the brûlée sauce goes in with the donuts, and you sort of bake it down to make it a bread pudding -like mixture, right?

Yep.

We'll take them out, we'll pack them in that mug, and we'll add our brûlée mixture into it.

And then we'll throw them back in the oven for about an hour, and then we'll top it.

So here comes some more of this wonderful blueberry glace, and it's going down the side of the mug, which I figure is intentional, right?

Yes, ma'am.

To give it a good look.

Then what goes on top of that?

Our house-made whipped cream.

Ooh.

Best dessert five times.

House-made whipped cream.

What's not to love about this?

That's it.

Even if you don't like blueberries, I think you'd like that.

Oh, yeah.

We tinkered around with it for a few weeks, came up with something solid, pitched it out to a few people.

It was a big hit.

But I had to go pitch it to the Connie's guys to get their approval.

Yes.

They had one bite, and they were in.

And we've won Best Dessert in the State from Mississippi Magazine five times now for that dish.

Well, that's terrific.

May I taste it, Chef?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Mm.

Crunchy but creamy.

Oh, this is so good.

I can see why if a person ate the entire dish, it would put you right to sleep.

Mm.

That's a winner.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chef Andrew.

Yes, ma'am.

My pleasure.

Been great working with you.

Yes, ma'am.

I hope we keep growing.

I hope we keep doing the same things we're doing.

We have a rock solid staff up here.

I've got two people that have been up here for 15 years, the entire time.

The majority of the staff's been up here for six to 10 years.

I hope to keep them around, and I hope to keep the public happy and smiling and full.

From serving up one of Mississippi's best desserts to showcasing live local music, the Blue Canoe in Tupelo has quickly become a place locals feel right at home.

300 miles south, this riverfront favorite has become a gathering place for a community that loves good food and good times.

There she is, the Jourdan River Steamer.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble!

Hey, I'm Hank Plauche'.

Welcome to the Steamer.

Glad you're out here to check it out.

Good to see you.

Hey, hey.

How's everyone doing?

Hey.

Good to see you.

Over here we have some pictures from our past, from the old days, from 1989 to present.

Y'all making the place look good today.

Thank you.

So here we are on the beautiful Jourdan River.

It's been yours for how long now?

In about 1989, I was living in New Orleans, and my father found this place over here, was interested.

We came in, took a look at it, and decided to purchase it.

It was an all-you-can- eat catfish house they called Robert's Reef.

We turned it into The Reef Restaurant.

We were on ground level back then.

A couple of floods came through here.

We got water in it, we repaired it.

Another one came through.

Within one week from the flooding, we'd be ready to open.

We'd call my guys, "Hey, same carpet, same insulation."

Yeah.

We had a May of '95 flood back then, and- ... well, listen, the water went above the fryers.

Uh-oh.

So all this grease went everywhere.

And it went back down, and everything was covered, and I'm like, "I would never have a fryer in this place again."

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And well, that's kind of where it changed over to the Jourdan River Steamer theme of it.

So that's the name Steamer.

That would explain it.

Right.

And that's kind of funny you asked that, because, well, then Katrina came by, and we actually put it back together again.

Do many people come up here by boat and hop out to eat and- Oh, yeah.

We have three nice docks out there for people to come up.

Yeah, we get quite a few.

Some even stay the night.

On their boats?

Yeah.

Not inside.

Yeah, not inside.

They don't stay inside, no.

So you have a boat here.

Can you tell us about that boat?

Well, the boat used to be a fishing boat, then it turned into a speedboat.

Well, and that one, I was redoing, it kind of got caught in a tornado.

And instead of repairing it, I had to replace it, so we have a little bit of a slower tritoon boat with lots of horse power on it.

All right.

We're out here in the beautiful Jourdan River, which is a big part of the Jourdan River Steamer restaurant right here in Kiln, Mississippi.

The spring and summertime, this place is hopping and alive on the water, with Sea-Doos, boats, and fishing boats, bass boats, people around fishing.

It can get pretty fun.

You get it pretty crowded up in here too on the holiday weekends.

Oh, wait, where am I going?

Hold on.

I'm talking, I'm not even looking where I'm going.

I think we have to make a Uie.

Hold on, guys.

We're spinning her around.

You've been working in the restaurant business, I think you said, for a long time.

Yes.

I started in New Orleans when I was in grammar school.

I had a crush on a girl, no mention names, and- And now we know ... and so I went and got a job at her father's restaurant.

So you could be near her.

Right.

And I started, I was an assistant dishwasher at 11, Friday, Saturday nights, and came to find out, she was never there.

How long before you moved up from being an assistant dishwasher, then and on to other jobs in the restaurant business?

I've never really... I'm still an assistant dishwasher.

I haven't really changed that much.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at this.

These are our jumbo giant king crab.

This is incredible, guys.

And how long's your chef been with you?

Oh, goodness.

That's a good question.

I didn't mean to ask a hard one.

It's been too long now, I think.

Oh.

No, I'm just kidding.

No.

No, Chef Dalton, he's phenomenal.

Chef Dalton, thank you so much for letting us come into your kitchen.

What are we going to cook today?

Today we are going to cook our red fish on the half shell with a ponchatrain sauce, topped with jumbo lump crab meat.

Sounds delicious.

Why is it on the half shell?

That's because it still has skin and scale on- ... on one side.

It help keeps the fat in between the skin and helps that meat stay a lot more moist and juicy.

Oh, delicious.

Sounds great.

Well, show us how you do it.

All right.

Well, first we're going to sprinkle on a little bit of seasoning here.

We want to go a little heavy on here with it.

And what sort of seasoning is that?

This is Old Bay seasoning.

Okay, that's familiar.

And then here we got a Montreal steak seasoning.

I'm going to press that in, and then we're going to set it here on the grill.

All right.

There it goes.

And seasoned side down, right?

That's right.

The regulars that come in, the business we achieve, especially in the middle of nowhere.

We're in Kiln, Mississippi.

One traffic light, two gas stations, the post office.

It's not really a city.

It's the town of Kiln.

There's no mayor.

I mean, we're an unincorporated town.

We do it our way.

We take care of each other out here.

And I love it.

You get pretty proud when you find out people are driving in from Mandeville or Covington or New Orleans or Mobile, Laurel, Mississippi.

We have people that'll drive two and a half hours to come eat with us.

And they're not staying in town.

They drive back afterwards.

That hits you pretty good right here.

That means a lot.

They'll return every year on their anniversary.

They won't go anywhere else.

I even offer them free coffee on the way home.

We have some shrimp.

We have a couple of varying sizes of shrimp.

We have some crawfish, butter, garlic, onion- ... and some green onions, and the microgreens here for the garnish.

I'll start getting my butter melting.

Who inspired you to become a chef?

Was it just something that you grew up into?

It's something I grew up into.

My family had a restaurant and a bar in New Orleans, and I- In the French Quarter you said?

In the French Quarter, yep.

And little kid sitting on an ice chest with shrimp, peeling shrimp with the dishwashers.

I just had a love for cooking, and I think I got a pretty good taste for it, so it just kind of led me in that path.

Okay, what's in that?

Or is that secret?

It's a little bit of a secret.

But it's mostly like a pepper and salt with onion and garlic, that kind of mixture in there.

Seasoning that you call your house season.

That's it.

So I'm going to look over here and see how my grill marks are doing.

And starting to look good.

I'm going to flip it over.

Oh, that's pretty.

And then I'll let it cook for a while on this side.

Your family used to have a summer camp here.

We had a summer camp in Pass Christian, Isles in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and we'd come here every summer, two, three months and hang out and just relaxing, a slower pace than the big city.

And after a while it's like I didn't want to go back anymore.

It was simple.

Now, the Jourdan River, it's beautiful.

We learned how to water ski on it.

Boating on it forever, since we were kids.

Me and a buddy of mine, we'd go cut grass when we were really young.

I'm 13, 14 years old, and fill the boat up with the little skiff we had, drive it across the bay, come all over the Jourdan River, and the location where our restaurant is now was a place called Jake's Landing.

And well, we could go over there and buy a six-pack of beer.

We've been through here one time with my sister and I, we were leaving the restaurant one evening by boat.

It was a little foggy out.

Well, we're cruising, just putting around, and there was a lady about 12 foot high in the fog with her arms out, and we just went right under her legs.

And we were speechless.

We couldn't even talk to each other.

It was very odd.

One of the ghosts of the Jourdan River we went through.

I haven't told many people that story.

Probably for good reason.

Without our kitchen, we're nothing.

So if you check it out over here, this is our food coming out.

This is our snapper, our potato crescent snapper.

This is a lobster cadopser, our stuffed lobster dish.

This is our expo line right here.

All of our food comes over.

Our guys will put it all together, make it look wonderful when it's finished up.

Now, this is why we call it the Jourdan River Steamer.

These are our convection steamers.

All of our crabs go through here.

It comes out crazy.

All right, this is our char-broiled oysters guys.

Getting these ready for the night.

Very nice.

That's the way you do it right here.

He moves all three hands at one time.

Pretty cool.

Yes, sir.

Come on, we'll keep on going back a little bit.

Robert, you back here?

Yep.

Oh, here's Robert.

Hey, check him out, guys.

Look, this is the dish pit.

These guys, without them, we are nothing.

Zero.

Zip.

Hey, smile.

Look at that pretty mug.

The steam team is amazing.

We have over 500 years of experience, if you add up the experience of all of our crew.

We have a lot of old -timers that have been in there for quite a while.

They know what they're doing.

We know each other's goods, bads.

We support each other.

We're family.

There's some of the steam team.

Say "hello," guys.

They're so shy right now.

That doesn't last very long.

10 ounces.

Force it.

That's a lot.

There we go.

And then we're going to go right over here and add a little bit of this brown butter.

Yes.

Oh, yum.

Everything's better with butter.

That's right.

We'll do a nice healthy portion there.

And we're going to hit it here in the salamander.

Nice crispy flesh.

So tell me, how did you come to work here at the Jourdan River Steamer?

You've been here for several years, haven't you?

Yeah, I've been here for a while.

Really, the place I was last at before here, I think I wasn't going any further, learning anything new, so you got to break away and try new things if you want to keep expanding, right?

So this is your happy place now?

Yeah.

This is home now.

This is home.

Well, that's great news.

And I think we're about good to pull this.

Oh, look how pretty that is.

So we've got a nice color there.

Oh, yeah.

That's perfect.

Of course, the lemon has cooked a little bit, so we know it's flavorful.

Top that right on.

Oh, look at the beautiful shrimp and crawfish.

And then we're going to sit here and top it with our jumbo lump crab meat.

Oh, a generous portion of lump crab meat.

No wonder this is a favorite dish for your customers.

Very nice.

Beautifully garnished, perfectly sauced.

It looks so good.

All right, let's see.

I'm going to get a bite that includes some of the delicious red fish and a shrimp.

Mm.

This is perfection.

Well, thank you.

Mm.

Thank you, Chef.

I'm coming back.

All right.

I'll be back to see you.

I hope to see you.

Thank you so much for letting me cook with you.

Great.

Thank you.

I started this when I was 11.

That's 50 years ago.

This whole town, 50 years ago.

Our whole staff is, they were born into it.

They were bred into it.

They're not doing anything else.

This is what we do for a living.

A frothy margarita on the banks of the Jourdan River with some fresh fish or some king crab.

I mean, come on, guys.

What more can you ask for?

A little boating and food.

Life is good.

In this episode of Southern Dish, we saw how two Mississippi restaurants are bringing more than just Southern cuisine to the table.

At the Blue Canoe in Tupelo, live music and local artists are served up alongside one of the state's best desserts.

And at the Jourdan River Steamer in Kiln, the enormous king crabs and flavorful red fish are just a taste of the good times right outside on the Jourdan River.

Our food tells us about who we are, where we came from, and where we're going.

Because here in the South, every dish tells a story.

Southern Dish is brought to you by these sponsors: Atmos Energy, proud to support the flavors and the stories that make Mississippi a one-of-a- kind culinary destination.

Mississippi Beverage Association.

This program proudly brought to you by Mississippi's own Foundation Gaming and Entertainment, owner and operator of Fitz Casino Hotel in Tunica and Waterview Casino Hotel in Vicksburg.

Foundation Gaming and Entertainment, Mississippians proudly supporting Mississippi