Best Thing Since...

It's been a while, but with some harassment from CJ, I figure it's time to dust off the Foodgeek space, and talk a little about the great food that I've been eating here in NOLA. Today, I'm going to talk about simple food. Stuff between sliced bread. Here in NOLA, when you talk sandwiches, you're probably talking one of two things. Po'boys or muffulettas. Don't get me wrong, there are some really good sandwiches that aren't po'boys or muffulettas, but they're not special to NOLA they way these sandwiches are. Both of these sandwiches are meant to be blue collar food. Huge portions for reasonable prices. And that's right in my wheelhouse.

Po'boys are basically the subs, hoagies, grinders, heroes, that you get in other parts of the country. They allegedly get their name from an vendor back in the day, who used to sell these big sandwiches on the cheap to the blue collar workers who would come by at lunch. Apparently one day, he sees a couple of the workers walking toward the counter, and he says to one of the customers, "here come those poor boys again." And apparently the name stuck.

Po'boys come on this french bread, most popularly from Leidenheimer's Bakery, which make a very light bread (not the dense baguette that may come to mind), that's a little flaky on the outside, a little chewy, and can soak up a lot of liquid, which we'll talk about later. The loaves come large, maybe about 3' long. And at some shops, you can order a whole loaf, half loaf, or small sandwich, and you'll get a 3' sandwich, an 18" sandwich, or a 9" sandwich. The sandwiches come plain (no veggies) or dressed (typically lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo) for a few cents more. And even now, you can go into one of the corner stores, and get a whole loaf po'boy for about $12. Po'boys come with a variety of fillings, and in the last few years, there's been a bit of an arms race at the different restaurants to come up with more and more interesting combinations. The old school po'boys are fried shrimp or fried oyster, ham and cold cuts, or roast beef (more to come on this). And more recent innovations have been things like fried green tomato and shrimp remoulade, cochon de lait (roast suckling pig), and oyster/bacon/swiss cheese.

Muffulettas are the NOLA version of an Italian sandwich, which come on a round loaf, about 12" in diameter, with sesame on top. The bread has a feel of solid, white bread. When you order a whole muffuletta, you get this gigantic sandwich that you probably can't polish off by yourself in one sitting (unless you're really motivated). The filling is pretty much the same, no matter where you go. You get some combination of capicola (cured pork), salami, mortadella (basically Italian bologna, with fat and pistachios), and ham. You get a layer of cheese, probably provolone and/or Swiss. So it's a lot like you would expect to see in an Italian hoagie that you'd get in Philly. But you don't put the normal vinegar and oil on a muffuletta. Instead, the signature of a muffuletta is probably the salty, tangy olive salad that covers the sandwich, which is basically giardiniera (pickled carrots, cauliflower, peppers, onions, and olives), with more olives, all chopped up. This gives you the oil and vinegar thing, plus more salty veggies on top. You can get muffulettas cold or hot.

Everyone in NOLA has their favorite places for po'boys or muffulettas. For muffulettas, the discussion tends to start at Central Grocery, which is apparently the place where they first started. I'm generally not fond of heading into the French Quarter, as the hassle is just too much for me. But there isn't a great muffuletta in the Uptown area in NOLA, where I live. When I'm in need of a muffuletta, I go with Nor Joe's, which is really an Italian deli out in the Metairie suburb. And I'll be honest, muffulettas are definitely my style - old school, really good, and totally blue collar. For $12-$14, you get a whole muffuletta, which can legitimately feed 2 people.

But in recent times, po'boys have gotten more attention, as they've been featured in New York Times articles, and on shows like Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. And you do see a lot of innovation. But I think that the prime example of a po'boy is the roast beef version. This isn't the sliced cold cuts that you'd see everywhere else. Instead, this is basically shredded pot roast, with a lot of gravy. And I really think that this where the Leidenheimer french bread shines. You can soak up a lot of those juices with this bread, and it manages to stay together for almost long enough to eat like a sandwich. And when people talk about their favorite places, the roast beef po'boy tends to be where they differentiate. Old school joints like Domilise's and Parasol's (which is now Tracy's) get some press, and make decent sandwiches. Mahoney's is another place that's a little bit more modern in it's menu. But my favorite place for po'boys is Parkway Bakery. They do a really good roast beef po'boy (they won the Food Feud - that show hosted by Michael Symon on Food Network). And they also do a really good fried shrimp po'boy. But the po'boy I tend to get is a little of both... well, actually a lot of both. It's the Surf 'n Turf po'boy. They put the fried shrimp, and then they put the roast beef on. I ask for swiss cheese, tomatoes, and pickles. The sandwich is just tasty, and becomes wonderfully messy as you eat it.

What's cool is that some nice restaurants also serve po'boys on their menus. College Inn does a slick oyster, havarti, and bacon po'boy, which sounds strange, but is really tasty. Crabby Jack's does an incredible duck po'boy, with shredded slow cooked duck and gravy. But I think that the one ridiculous po'boy that gets overlooked is the deep fried roast beef po'boy at Jacque Imo's (who also own's Crabby Jack's). Literally, it's a 9" roast beef and swiss cheese po'boy, that they lock in place with toothpicks, and then batter and fry. Tasty, meaty, and deep fried. The amazing part is that this is an appetizer that really should be a meal. I made the mistake of ordering it as an app, and then realized that half-way through that I was pretty much full, even before the entree was on it's way.

The thing is that all of these sandwiches that I've mentioned are huge meals, incredibly tasty, and are a pretty affordable meal. Muffulettas and po'boys originated as food for blue collar folks, which is how most of the great food of the world originated. Poor people find ways to stretch their money, and to make things taste great. Southern cooking, soul food, low-country cuisine, and Cajun food are all examples of this great pattern. And if you go beyond American borders, if you look at Mexican food, Chinese food, Italian food, Turkish food, Spanish food, and all of the great cuisines of the world, you see this pattern. And as much as I dig high end food every once in a while, I really dig this sort of stuff done well.

-foodgeek