When people ask me "what's your favorite sandwich?" I usually toss out a few answers; it all depends on the occasion. But two of my perennial favorites are the New Orleans classics the fried oyster po'boy and the muffuletta. The fried oyster po'boy harks back to my Gulf Coast roots, while the muffuletta appeals to my Sicilian palette.
They are so different it would be hard to choose: I usually prefer hot sandwiches, but the muffuletta is my favorite cold sandwich of all time. However, if I had to pick one sandwich to eat once a year for the rest of my life, I have to say, it would be the oyster po'boy. So in honor of Mardi Gras, I present to you the same dilemma.
Mardi Gras Sandwich Showdown: Muffuletta vs. Po'boy
March 8, 2011 7:33 am · Posted by Nancy Einhart
Making Peace With Oyster Po'Boys
May 12, 2010 7:00 am · Posted by nancyeinhart
My dear friend Anna always claimed not to like oysters. Having grown up on the Gulf of Mexico, this makes me sad — and suspicious that, as a Wyoming native, she just never had a good oyster. But in New Orleans, she came around.
After sampling her husband's fried oyster po'boy at Parasol's, Anna realized it was just raw oysters that made her squirm, so before we left town, she had to have an oyster po'boy of her own, over brunch at The Old Coffee Pot. I mention this because it's wonderfully in keeping with the oyster po'boy's reputation as an offering from husbands to wives.
One of the country's oldest sandwiches, the "oyster loaf" in the 1800s was called la mediatrice, or "the peacemaker," because boozin' husbands brought them home to make their waiting wives less angry about their misdeeds. In Anna's case, her husband's mediatrice helped her make peace with fried oysters.
Happy Mardi Gras! Love, Sandwiches
February 16, 2010 7:26 am · Posted by nancyeinhart
New Orleans is one of the great sandwich cities, rivaled perhaps only by Philadelphia. Though it lays claim to just two iconic sammies — the po'boy and the muffuletta — both are transcendent, and the po'boy comes in so many varieties that it's pretty much a category of its own. In honor of Mardi Gras, take a 'wich trip through New Orleans's sandwich history.
 The Great Heated Muffuletta Debate |
 Central Grocery: A Whole Lotta 'Letta |
 The Fight to Preserve the Po'Boy |
 'Wich Trip: Legendary Po'Boys at Domilise's |
Meanwhile, I'm going to New Orleans again in April, so if anyone has any recommendations, please share. I haven't been to Parkway, so that might be on my list.
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