Recently I ate lunch at a restaurant in Jackson called Babalu. The menu was very interesting and the food was delicious. It was kinda, sorta Mexican with some Mediterranean touches. I ordered lamb sliders. The server offered several sauces, among them Comeback.
This meal set the wheels in the culinary history and tidbits section of my brain spinning. Comeback Dressing is very familiar in our area, but it has not one thing to do with Mexican food. Comeback Sauce was first introduced to Mississippi by the Greek restaurateurs who immigrated here in the 1920s.
I began to recall that the flavors in Greek food are very familiar to those of us in Mississippi because a large number of Mississippi restaurateurs are of Greek descent: the Mayflower, the Elite, Dennery’s, Crechales, Nick’s, Bill’s Burger Hut and others in Jackson alone.
I was reminded of going to the Mayflower with my friend Irene Kountouris, whose family owed the Mayflower, in 1971. A group of girlfriends would spend an evening riding around, then ending up at the Mayflower watching Irene’s uncle Eddie, who made the house dressing. This dressing has come to be known in Mississippi as Comeback Dressing.
There is some amount of controversy about where it was created, at the Mayflower or at a restaurant owned by the Dennery family called the Rotisserie. My money is on the Mayflower. I wish I had a nickel for each of the countless crackers I ate there topped with that same dressing.
These days Callie Kountouris McDole, whose father owned the Mayflower until his death in 2005, makes the sauce for a restaurant in Dallas. On the label she calls Papou's Dressing, the cut line says “Made at the Mayflower Cafe since 1935.” Top Chef Cat Cora, who grew up in the Greek restaurant community in Jackson, says “Comeback sauce is one of those magical mixes that can go on anything. Growing up in Mississippi, we dipped crackers in it, put it on salads, fish, shrimp, fried green tomatoes.”
Fast forward ahead to Bill’s Burger Hut on McWilly Drive in Jackson, where the chef/owner called out to each customer who came in “God Bless America!” He had the Greek touch with seafood. What he could do with a filet of fish just cooked on a flattop was magic. His signature dessert was called Galatoboureko. Composed of homemade custard and phyllo, it is, I believe, far superior to baklava, because it’s not so tooth-hurtingly sweet.
Next I went back to a favorite restaurant of mine in Tulsa, Jim’s Never on Sunday Coney Island and Greek Restaurant – yes, that really is the name. It’s on North Harvard – and thought of their lemony roasted potatoes which were crusty on the outside and velvety on the inside and lima beans cooked with tomatoes and fresh oregano. The Bokadakis family owned this family restaurant and made friends with all their customers. Try as hard as I can, I cannot duplicate the Greek Baked Chicken, fragrant with lemon, olive oil, garlic and fresh oregano. It was crispy and tender and really would melt in your mouth.
Each of these stellar restaurants had a Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, red onions, feta cheese and Calamata olives.
I grew up having a “relish tray” every week at my Grandmother's house for Sunday dinner. She always had homemade pickles, celery stuffed with her pimento cheese, stuffed eggs, green and black olives. These olives were a bit hard and tinny tasting with a hole in the middle, just perfect for my brothers to place on the ends of their fingers. Imagine my surprise biting into a Calamata olive for the first time. To begin, there was a pit, the texture was soft, salty and robust - a far cry from Libby's Black Olives.
From the soft yeasty rolls at the Elite to the Greek Salad with Crabmeat and Comeback Sauce to the superbly cooked Redfish with Lemon and Oregano at Bill's Burger Hut to the perfectly friend shrimp at Dennery's to the stuffed soft-shelled crabs at Crechele's to the tower of butter at Nick's - Greek restaurateurs shaped our taste buds, not just here in Mississippi, but around the country.
But with all the delicious Greek-inspired food around, the credit for the inimitable Comeback Sauce lies directly in our capital city.
Viva la Comeback!
Purported to be the original Mayflower Comeback sauce:
In food processor:
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cups mayo
• 1/2 c. chili sauce
• 1/2 c. ketchup
• 1 c. salad oil
• 2 T. black pepper
• juice of two lemons
• 2 tsp. yellow mustard
• 1 heaping tsp. horseradish
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire
• 2 good dashes tabasco
• half an onion, grated
Store in a gallon jug.
Give it a good whirl, and be ready for saucy delicious goodness.
Fran Ginn is former chef/owner of The Back Door Café, who retired after 31 years in the food industry to be a grandmother. She can be contacted at fran@franginn.com.
