What exactly IS a Po'Boy anyway?

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Generally folks who don't live in The South have no idea what a po'boy really is though it's often entertaining to read discussion boards where they speculate about what they think it is.

Po'boys are often compared with a sub sandwich which they most certainly are not. Not that there is anything wrong with a sub - they just aren't the same animal.

Though the origins and stories vary (as they often do), one of those stories says that po'boys originated in New Orleans back in the 1920s, when two brothers, Clovis and Benjamin Martin, opened a restaurant on St. Claude Avenue. It is also said that when streetcar drivers went under a strike in the late 20s, the brothers, former streetcar drivers themselves, helped out those on strike by making up cheap sandwiches from the shredded leftovers of roast beef which they then dipped in some gravy, and they would serve out of the back of their restaurant to the striking workers. When a kitchen cook would spot one of the workers headed to the back door, he would belt out "here comes one of those poor boys" and the name kind of stuck.

So, if you don't know what a po' boy is, it's a sandwich made by using French bread - and don't go trying to be all fancified and start calling it a "baguette" for pete's sake! It's just good old fashioned French bread like they sell in the cart by the front door at Walmart. Just French Bread People. In my mind a baguette is a really just a type of French bread - a really skinny long type of French bread - and though popular not really appropriate for a proper po'boy, at least in my personal opinion.  So get the wide loaf of regular ole French Bread, okay?  Then you can stuff it with virtually anything really, but down south here along the Gulf Coast, that is most often first and foremost some kind of seafood - fried shrimp, fried oysters or patties made with crabmeat. Fried soft shell crab is also particularly good especially when it's molting season for crabs and you can get them fresh. Yum.

And... y'all know I am all about making things your own in the kitchen. But ...

If I see another "so-called" Shrimp Po'Boy that has some kind of a saucy shrimp on French bread, I swear I am gonna scream. That might be some fancy restaurant's way of presenting a shrimp po'boy in a more "sophisticated" manner - and no, I don't care if it is a New Orleans restaurant Chef either, because to me, that's just a chef bastardizing a shrimp po'boy by trying to fancy it up and let me tell you - there ain't supposed to be nothing sophisticated about a po'boy y'all!! And putting a fancy shrimp remoulade or otherwise saucy shrimp - more properly suited as an appetizer, over rice or in a pasta recipe in my little ole humble opinion - on a loaf of French Bread does not a Shrimp Po'boy make.  Just call it what it really is - a Shrimp Sandwich on French Bread!!!

If it's not fried shrimp, on French bread, dressed with mayo, lettuce and tomato (and maybe a couple of pickles) and down here in Mississippi, often pressed, it is NOT a Shrimp Po'boy.

Whew. Okay I feel better now...

Second to seafood would probably be the alleged original ... a dripping, sloppy roast beef po'boy, dressed and pressed over here in Mississippi and loaded with plenty of gravy, maybe with cheese and most often that's white cheese of some kind, often provolone. And no, that roast beef po'boy is no french dip - that is a totally different thang so don't even go there. A roast beef po'boy is soooooo good and like my Mama used to say, "if it ain't dripping and sloppy, it ain't good." I made a couple of those the other day for hubs and me and man oh man, were they good! Course there's the usual standard ham and cheese, sausage, hamburger, meatball, fish, pork, turkey and just about any other kind you can drum up in the imagination too.

Now Mississippi and Louisiana, while we love one another like adoring sisters, we do our po'boys just a little bit different.

Most Mississippi po'boy purists are gonna go "dressed and pressed" no matter the kind and that's a bit different than how New Orleans does 'em. Dressed simply means to garnish it, usually with mayo, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and maybe an occasional pickle. Pressed means that whole sandwich is placed into a sandwich iron - sort of like a panini press - which presses the po'boy together, and creates a slightly crunchy and crusty outside while maintaining the chewy soft texture of the french bread inside. Who knew that Mississippi was in on a trend way before paninis made sandwich food fashionable.

Po'boys are an experience that you must taste for yourself, should you ever happen to make it down here to the Gulf Coast. My best friend I grew up with lives in Texas now. Every once in awhile she makes it back "home" and when she does, it's usually a must to make the po'boy rounds, having a different po'boy at a different place every day she is here. Yep. They are that good.

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