We’d read about a restaurant in Lorman, a speck of a community just off the Parkway. It’s called the Old Country Store and its owner, Mr. Arthur Davis, cooks and serves reputedly the “World’s Best Fried Chicken” – while wearing a crisp white shirt and fine red tie. He and his establishment were featured in Alton Brown’s “Feasting on Asphalt” television program on the Food Network. From the outside, it isn’t very impressive. As the name implies, the building has served as a general store and several other things.
Remnants of of the building’s days as a general store can be seen in the sliding ladders (one on each side of the store’s interior), the shelving, and the drawers. Today, this area serves as a dining room.
The food is served buffet-style in an adjoining room. There was fried chicken, field peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans with bacon, mustard greens, salad, cornbread, fruit, and homemade desserts (including banana pudding with vanilla wafers, quite popular in MS). With your choice of non-alcoholic beverages, this all-you-can-eat array cost a mere $8.95!
While I was eating, I could hear Mr. D crooning in a bluesy, Mississippi Delta way that there was “Fresh hot fried chicken” as a new batch was put out on the serving table. When you pay for your meal at the register, Mr. D signs a menu and gives it to you as a gift. You just have to go there! It’s remarkable!
Incidentally, there is nothing remotely healthy in Mississippi cuisine. It’s either fried, has lots of sugar in or on it, or a combination of both! Vegetables have been cooked too long and often with bits of pork fat or bacon in them. This is the South, where you are asked if you want “sweet” or “unsweet” ice tea. “Sweet” tea will give you such a sugar buzz!
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