![what is a po boy what is a po boy](https://portico.travel/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NOLA_PoBoys_Cover_CreativeCommons_PaulLowry.jpg)
At Parkway, Kennedy receives two deliveries a day. The lightness means the bread grows stale quickly, and you can’t transport it anywhere. That airiness, he says, is also why “you eat this big sandwich, and you wonder how you finished it-well, you’re not eating all that damn bread.” “If you gave it to a Frenchman, he’d laugh,” says Kennedy. The crust is brittle but flaky, crunchy but “not as hard as a rock.” He describes the inside as similar to cotton candy. At peak freshness, “it’s the best bread you ever want to taste,” says Kennedy, and nothing like a Parisian baguette. Po’ boys have to be made on New Orleans French bread. At Parkway, “they’re loaded down with stuff,” says Kennedy. But your po’ boy should be extravagant in spirit, even if it’s not enormous in reality. At Parkway, Kennedy makes a small that’s just over five inches and a large that clocks in around 10.
What is a po boy full#
Prices have gone up, and most joints don’t serve the full two-and-a-half feet any more. Then you realize why they call them ‘poor boys.’ They cost a dime, and a half of one makes a meal.” You are surprised to find them remarkably good, though a trifle unwieldy. “In a moment appear before you two large sandwiches made by cutting a 28-inch loaf of bread in two, then splitting it lengthwise, piling it with sliced roast beef, lettuce, and tomatoes, and drowning the whole in gravy.
![what is a po boy what is a po boy](https://images.heb.com/is/image/HEBGrocery/recipe-hm-large/french-quarter-po-boy-recipe.jpg)
Here’s a rundown of what happens when you order your first po’ boy, according the Federal Writers’ Project guide to New Orleans from 1930. Here are the secrets to making a respectable po’ boy in your own kitchen. And then, if you can source passable bread and replicate the particular blend of fillings, toppings, and exuberance that New Orleans has perfected, you can come very, very close-especially with some help from Mr. In NOLA or elsewhere, the best po’ boys start with the best fillings, so if you fry fresh shrimp and roast up delicious meat, you’re well on your way.
![what is a po boy what is a po boy](https://d1dxs113ar9ebd.cloudfront.net/225batonrouge/2017/04/Poboy.FeatureImage.jpg)
And if you’re not in Crescent City, then you likely don’t have the right bread and your sandwich will be an inexact replica.īut don’t let that stop you. Therein lies the paradox of making a po’ boy at home: If you’re in New Orleans, any big sandwich you eat is a po’ boy. It can have any filling, from those two iconic options down to prosaic grilled chicken or American cheese.
![what is a po boy what is a po boy](https://food.fnr.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/food/fullset/2020/08/20/0/FNM_100120-Shrimp-Po-Boy_s4x3.jpg)
In New Orleans, though, a po’ boy is just a big sandwich, the same way that a grinder or a hoagie is a sandwich to New Englanders and Philadelphians, respectively. Other groceries quickly followed.Īll these years later, the po’ boy possesses a mystique for outsiders, and an enduring association with fried shellfish and roast beef. And so they started making sandwiches so big the workers wouldn’t go hungry. “When the Martins heard about the strike, they said, ‘We’ll take care of you, our poor boys,'” explains Justin Kennedy, chef at the family-owned Parkway Bakery and Tavern. Invented during the Depression at Martin Brothers Restaurant in New Orleans, the po’ boy was created by two retired streetcar conductors in order to feed the city’s destitute streetcar workers who had gone on strike when their pay was cut. If you’re hungry-like, haven’t-eaten-a-square-meal-in-weeks hungry-you can’t do better than a po’ boy.