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Meet the Best Bite Challenge Winner!

Four Local Restaurants and Special Dishes Were Submitted by Viewers

"Good Morning America Weekend" asked viewers to nominate their favorite local restaurants for our Best Bites Challenge. We're looking for the place in your town that has it all -- great food, atmosphere and people, as well as one special dish that makes the restaurant unique.

Sabra Kelly

From the hundreds of responses received, we narrowed the Best Bites finalists down to four restaurants -- Aunt Jenny's Catfish Restaurant in Ocean Springs, Miss.; Yesterday Café in Rutledge, Ga.; 12 Bones Smokehouse in Asheville, N.C.; and Hot Dougs in Chicago, Ill.

The viewers have spoken and 12 Bones Smokehouse was named the GMA Weekend Best Bites champ. Read about all four restaurants and their signature dishes below.

Best Bite Nominee: Aunt Jenny's Catfish Restaurant
Ocean Springs, Miss.
Co-owners: Ronnie Hamilton and Carl Lizana
Web site: www.coastseafood.com/jennys

From the submission: Enjoy Aunt Jenny's pond-raised catfish, shrimp and chicken (all you can eat), served family style, while dining in a 1852 historic home, under 500-year-old oaks at the mouth of the Bay of Biloxi. In the '50s Aunt Jenny's was a favorite place of Elvis Presley to eat when he visited the Gulf Hills Dude Ranch on the coast.

On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded the restaurant and blew the kitchen roof off, but within a week and a half it was back opened to the public.

It is on the site of Old Indian Health Springs. Years ago before the white man came, Ocean Springs was called E-ca-ma-cha-ha, which means the Holy Ground. From all surrounding areas, the Indians came to drink of the water of the Great Spirit.

Signature dish: Fried Catfish

Ingredients:
Twenty-five pounds of plain yellow cornmeal
Five pounds of self-rising white flour
Two pounds of yellow corn flour
½ cup of garlic powder
One box of salt
½ cup of cayenne pepper

Procedure:
Mix all of the above ingredients thoroughly. Repeat this mixture of ingredients three times. Take drained catfish fillets and add to a tub of meal. Add 2 to 3 scoops of dry fishmeal and bread. Add directly to peanut oil and deep-fry at 350 degrees. Cook until golden brown.

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