SMORGASBORD MA MATTIE’S SOUTHERN COOKIN’ : Down Home : The location in Port Hueneme may be new, but the food is as good as ever.

Late last year, a For Rent sign went up in the window of an Oxnard restaurant that had been dishing out some of the best “down-home” food this side of the Mason-Dixon line. The sign and the empty storefront behind it were a disappointment. But not a surprise.

Harold and Mattie Lockett’s Ma Mattie’s Southern Cookin’ had been buried in a decaying shopping center in an Ormond Beach neighborhood called The Stroll. The restaurant’s neighbors had been a seedy food market, a litter-filled parking lot and a few loungers.

So when the For Rent sign appeared, it looked like Ma’s exceptionally tasty food wasn’t going to be a culinary option any longer.

But it turned out that Ma and Harold were merely regrouping. “We decided to take another shot,” Harold said, and their home-cooked meals are with us again, farther down West Hueneme Road near Ventura Road in an attractive shopping center in Port Hueneme.

The new place is light, and simply and attractively decorated, neither of which had been the case in the old location. Ma made the new curtains herself.

And the place is still crawling with Ma and Harold’s grandchildren. But they’ve gotten a little older, and they’re chopping vegetables, washing dishes, taking orders and generally making themselves useful.

Although the location and the decor have been upgraded, the food never needed improvement. The cornmeal muffin holds together until you can get it into your mouth. Aunt Lois’ Southern fried chicken is crisp enough to make you think that you’re at Pioneer Chicken, but without the grease.

I’ve tried a lot of Ma’s menu, though I’ve never been adventurous enough to try the pig’s feet or Ma’s Sunday special, the chitterlings. And I don’t come here for the barbecue pork ribs, which are all right. But then, this isn’t billed as a barbecue joint.

I come for dishes such as Aunt Lulu’s chicken and dumplings--”really authentic,” as someone at the next table said--with lots of chicken and heavy biscuits. Ma’s own chicken and sausage jambalaya--with onions, peppers and tomatoes, and crisp, ready-to-burst sausage--is great. Cousin Marie’s fried fish is a rarity in a down-home place, a fried fish that isn’t overcooked. This one is catfish, dipped lightly in cornmeal and cooked with all the moisture sealed in.

The traditional Southern side dishes include macaroni and cheese, collard greens and black-eyed peas. The cabbage is boiled, but it is made with a subtle spice that doesn’t hit you until the second or third bite.

The biscuits are soft and heavy and, with the gravy, are as good as any you will find.

With this kind of food, I wish they served beer, but a bar is getting ready to open next door and maybe that will be a solution.

In the old place, all desserts were placed on the counter, which isn’t the case here. But they are still fine enough to be an enticement of their own.

“We make them here,” said Lulu, Ma and Harold’s daughter. I can never pass up chocolate cake--any chocolate cake--and I give this one high marks. It’s a heavy German model. And there’s sweet potato pie, of course.

But these fade beside Jua-Lezza’s peach cobbler and Josea’s bread pudding. These desserts, Lulu said, were big hits at old-time Baptist Sunday dinners. With me, they are big hits any day. The bread pudding, moist and robust, and full of nutmeg and raisins, is one I will put up against any I have eaten.

In Ventura County, there isn’t much competition in Southern cooking. Ma Mattie’s new place would hold its own if there were.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Ma Mattie’s Southern Cookin’, 301 W. Hueneme Road, Port Hueneme, 986-3827. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Tuesdays through Sundays 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. No alcohol. Reservations not necessary. Major credit cards accepted. Lunch or dinner for two, $11 to $28. Recommended dishes: Aunt Lulu’s chicken and dumplings, $6.95; Cousin Marie’s fried fish, $8.95.