Forget desperate Carrie Underwood-like hanging on celebrities & overhyped Augusta restaurants at Masters, I'd rather eat at Mary Mahoney's on Gulf Coast

Tim McDonald wrote a nice story on what to do in Augusta Masters week. He only included a brief mention of the “fine dining” you could enjoy though and that’s probably a good thing.

My dining experience with McDonald consists of one day when we had a sit-down meal at Denny’s for lunch and got TGI Friday’s takeout for dinner (both his choice) and one other time when we hit the Cracker Barrel (his pick again, I believe). I have a pretty good notion that these were the culinary highlights of my swamp-dwelling colleague’s life too.

So well Augusta may have some decent food, it’s surely overhyped this week and beyond packed with the kind of celebrities who lucked or stumbled into celebrity and show up at events like the Masters because it’s a good place to be seen. You know celebs like Carrie Underwood, who while being 100 times the singer that fellow American Idol creation Taylor Hicks is, keeps desperately grasping for attention by doing things like dating Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and now breaking up with some loser named Chace Crawford by text message.

Be ready Adam Scott, be ready … You never know where Carrie Underwood will reach for attention next. After all, Derek Jeter is injured, which might take Yankee Stadium out of the picture.

While all that goes on and has beens on the scale of Danny DeVito demand a table at restaurants that scrap for customers the other 51 weeks of the year, I’d much rather be enjoying at meal at Mary Mahoney’s in Biloxi, Mississippi. This place draws celebrities too - Denzel and Jack have been - but its food more than backs it up.

I wrote about what a character owner Bobby Mahoney was in the last On the Spot column, but just focusing on that doesn’t do justice to what comes out of the kitchen. Mary Mahoney’s turned out to be the second richest meal of my life - in deepness of flavor not price - behind only a little hidden place in Paris where the chef came out and insisted on cooking a tasting menu of his selections for my wife and I years ago.

Mary Mahoney’s food is that rich and not just the gumbo that shouldn’t be missed. The petite soft shelled crabs are incredible (do yourself a big favor and order a platter for the table). And for main courses, you cannot go wrong with the snapper stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat au gratin. It’s also accompanied by pasta with crawfish etouffee, which is no mere throwaway side dish.

The food’s fantastic and it’s so rich, you’ll likely be using your napkin to wave surrender. And then wondering when you’ll be able to get back.

Unforgettable meals like this you might not expect are part of what make the Gulf Coast and the neighboring Alabama Gulf Shores such a satisfying golf getaway.

Or you could spend your time waiting in a line longer than one for Hannah Montana tickets to get into some Augusta restaurant where some attention-seeking-celeb on the desperation scale of a Carrie Underwood is holding court. Who needs that type of Masters magic?