Save the Boy

I have only been to New Orleans once—to attend Jazz Fest pre-Katrina—but it took only the one visit for me to fall madly in love with the city and it's food. One of my happiest memories is sitting at a dive in the French Quarter with Tim, spending hours eating hot red crawfish right out of the net they'd been boiled in, and washing down those spicy cajun crustaceans with cold beers out of the bottle (this was before we had kids, obviously). We even got a tutorial from a waiter on how to "suck the head" of those craw-daddies to get all the extra juice (at least I think he was a waiter, he could have been a head sucking expert passing by). 

That afternoon was a food and pleasure experience one could only have in that city and I'll never forget it.

The other deliciousness from that visit that I've missed eating were the shrimp po' boy sandwiches served at the Jazz Fest fairgrounds and the oyster po' boy I ate at a place in Uptown that a writer friend took us too. I have never had their equal in the this neck of the woods--even if I've seen them more and more on menus. The bread, the remoulade, the freshness of the seafood...cannot be duplicated in these parts.

So I was excited to see in yesterday's New York Times Dining section an article—written by the wonderful Southern food writer/expert John T. Edge— about the Big Easy rallying behind it's iconic sandwich. There is also this great slide show.

It made me want to plan a trip back immediately, just so I can suck some heads and eat some sandwiches with those talented people of New Orleans.—Caroline