Wednesday, October 17, 2007

A Completely Gratuitious Post on Nola Food

Only in New Orleans can you have shrimp boiled with butter and Zatarain's for breakfast, a muffaletta for lunch, and a po' boy for dinner. And remember, in New Orleans, you can never refer to "shrimp" as "prawns" and they should always be served with heads and tails.

If you've never had a muffaletta, allow me to explain this prodigious sandwich that calls New Orleans its birthplace. A muffaletta is sandwich that is loaded with a piquant and acerbic chopped "olive salad" that is almost comparable to a caponata + tapenade mix. The salad contains substantial hunks, bits, and pieces of marinated or pickled vegetables, including capers, pepperocinis, pimentos, anchovies, and olives. This is no puny sandwich. The crusty, dense, and chewy bread that encloses a muffaletta is twice the size of a dinner plate from Denny's. And every muffaletta is interlayered with slice-upon-slice of soft provolone cheese and salami flecked with peppercorns. Forget about Skittles, the muffaletta is the true rainbow of flavors. Gulliver would definitely find these things in Brobdingnag.

The only New Orleans sandwich that rivals or trumps the muffaletta, is the po' boy. Although people in New Orleans use the term "po' boy" to refer to almost every type of submarine sandwich, a po' boy most commonly refers to a sandwich stuffed with battered and deep-fried nuggets of oysters, catfish, and/or shrimp. Additional po' boy components include iceberg lettuce that is shredded so finely that it melts in your mouth, a few slices of dill pickle, and one lonesome slice of red tomato. (Remember, use minimal veggies here folks, minimal veggies.) All of a po' boy's ingredients are enclosed within a loaf of chewy French bread slathered with extravagant amounts of mayonnaise and mustard.

I hope this quick course on Nola food has encouraged you to visit! Ya'll come now, y'hear!

20 comments:

  1. Dear me! Sounds fabulous. Pinknest would fit right in there...does the po' boy come with french fries? After she reads this I am sure she will be coming to visit you.

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  2. and here i am! lol! that po' boy has my name all over it. in fact, i think i want that for breakfast lunch and dinner despite the fact that i'm not in new orleans.

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  3. yum. i should have tried that when i was down there.

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  4. Hmm, all looks good. I want to get my hands on a muffaleta, but not sure how I can bite into it! I love sandwiches that includes a salad too! :)

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  5. My goodness does that look good...more lessons...please!

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  6. On my way. Sigh.
    Cranky -- oops, Meatball -- once brought back a jar of Central Grocery's olive salad so we could make the muffs at home.

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  7. This post got my mouth watering!

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  8. Ah, Nawlins...how I miss the food. Lookin' forward to more of your delicious pictures and words.

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  9. The muffaletta san sounds and looks DeeLish! I want to learn how to make it but most of all, I want to eat it.

    Thanks for such a great blog site! junemoon

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  10. where did you get the poboy?

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  11. Woo, another food blog has been discovered! Am here from your comment at the Single Guy's place, and delighted to have found you. I've not been to your neck of the woods yet, but it's way at the top of my "someday" list. Consider yourself bookmarked :-)

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  12. Those shrimp look delicious and that is quite the sandwich! I'm drooling here.

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  13. Oyster po boys! I would be in heaven! Even over my morning coffe, that sounds delish!

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  14. ... How do you fit those things in your tummy?

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  15. yah, those are big looking samwiches! is good to see the real deal as compared to what we get served here. looks like you are eating well PE, keep posting, it's not gratuitous for those of us who have never been there!

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  16. yum an oyster sandwich sounds out of this world!

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  17. Oh my goodness that first pic looks so amazingit's almost sick! Wow.

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  18. I m afraid I think I will have to stop reading your blog or I am going to have to move to New Orleans because visiting won't be enough for me to eat all the delicious food - yes I can almost taste it - that you blog about!
    Keep up the good work!

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  19. You all are so encouraging and wonderful. I am so lucky to have you all as my blogging friends. Thanks for always sending me sweet comments and checking up on me here in Nola. :)

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  20. the muffeletta is not from central grocery - which is the ONLY place to get one!

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