Very Important Information

Po-Boy Preservation Festival winners include some surprises

By Judy Walker

November 30, 2009, 11:32AM

On Sunday, November 22, Mahoney's winning chicken liver po-boy was one of three top sandwiches that included slaw of some sort. 5,000+ New Orleanians celebrated the city’s most famous sandwich on the newly renovated Oak Street corridor.

In a press release afterwards, the festival released the winners of the judged competition for the best po-boys in seven categories.

In an unusual twist, three of the winning sandwiches included some form of slaw.

This year’s winners include:

Best in Show: Grand Isle’s Shrimp Caminada
The po-boy was named in honor of Caminada, which is a fishing town west of Grand Isle wiped out in a terrible storm on October 2, 1893. The sandwich consists of shrimp sautéed in a spicy citrus butter sauce topped with herb slaw. Grand Isle will soon be adding the sandwich to their menu.

People’s Choice: New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood Co.’s Shrimp-Zilla
The sandwich consists of roast beef, fried shrimp and coleslaw.

Best Pork Po-Boy: Dong Phuong Bakery’s Vietnamese Po-Boy
The Banh Mi was quite popular with the crowds at this year’s festival. In Vietnamese, “banh mi” translates both as ‘bread’ and ‘the sandwich using that bread.’ Here in New Orleans, banh mi has become known as the ‘Vietnamese po-boy.’

Best Roast Beef Po-Boy: Gattuso’s Neighborhood Bar & Restaurant Roast Beef Po-Boy

Best Shrimp Po-Boy: Boucherie’s Barbecued Shrimp Po-boy

Best Special Seafood Po-Boy: Acme Oyster House’s Fried Oyster Po-Boy

Best Special Non-Seafood Po-Boy: Mahoney’s Po-Boy Shop’s Fried Chicken Livers & Coleslaw Po-Boy

This year’s panel of 26 judges included chef/owner Johnny Blancher of Ye Olde College Inn, who won Best of Show at the last two festivals. Other judges were Todd Price, freelancer for The Times-Picayune; Lorin Gaudin of WDSU; Camille Whitworth, report/anchor for WDSU; David Darragh, president of Reily Foods, and Robert Peyton of New O

London part II

I kinda got away from this subject, I come across pieces like the two videos and articles from the New Orleans food section and I really want to share them with you. Also I'm gonna have to sit down and think to recall my London trip, the videos and stuff like that are no brianer. But anyway, back to London.

One of the first things I noticed about London was how quite it was for such a city. The folks on the train to Victoria Station were a very civil bunch. It was obvious most were commuting to work in the city proper. Only one bloke talking to loud on cell phone. When it came to getting a cab you would que up and wait your turn if you were at a hotel or somewhere lot's of folks were waiting for cabs. When you did get a cab you didn't just get in, the cabbie would roll down the pass window and you would "ask" if he would take you to such and such place. I also noticed how few horns were blowing, it was quite quite for such a city.



We drank at many pubs. This is a photo of the Churchill Arms. The guy I was traveling with had lived in London a few years back and knew where the good puds were. He told me how the older pubs were referred to as "locals" by the locals who frequented these puds. The Arms was totally a locals place. One of the coolest bars I have ever imbibed at. He knew which puds were chain operated and steered clear of those unless we had no choice at that moment. He pointed out the extra cold Guinness tap which was referred to as "American Guinness". The Brits prefer their beer a bit less cold then us Yanks. The Guinness beer was the best tasting, freshest beer I have ever had. So I had many.

We ate as well. Traveling partner enjoys food as much as I do so we looked for a couple of gastro pubs suggested buy the Chow Hound website. We tried to eat at Anchor Hope which was first on the list, but 2 hour wait. So that night we went across the street to Live Bait. We had a good meal. Oysters, Scallop Risotto, and more. The next afternoon we had our best meal of the trip at the Atlas gastro pub, 2nd on the chow hound list. We had five minutes before the kitchen closed for lunch so we took a seat by the open fire, ordered beers and checked out the menu. We ate Rabbit with veggies and Duck three ways.



Stayed tuned!!

SMOKE AND EARS

You got to take the 2o minutes to watch this video. Mr. York has been at it for years and his shorts keep getting better and better.
Enjoy!
http://www.southernfoodways.com/documentary/film/smoke_ears.html

PERFECT FRIED CHICKEN

(Photo: Marco Grob)

A couple years ago friends gifted me with the Lee Brothers southern cookbook. I had seen and heard a bit about these brothers from the south making their name in NYC. I had heard that they had tried to sell boiled peanuts door to door in NYC. I really didn't know what I thought about them, and after watching them here I'm still not sure. The thing is I'm not sure what I'm not sure about. But this video is cool. It's about one of my favorite foods with a great little back story. I plan on eating there next time I'm in NYC. Ya got to get past the 30 second ad, it's worth it.
http://www.chow.com/stories/11719

PRIMAL

Don't tell me I don't know how to show my lady a good time.
Saturday night Stacey and I got Primal. We drank beer, ate lot's of meat and sat in on butchering demos. Sweetwater Brewery hosted this event. We ate sliders from grind house, lamb brains from P'cheen and roasted veggies from Farm 255 and more. We also enjoyed watching a master butcher with 35 years experience completely break down a really big lamb in about 10 minutes. Like I said I know how to treat the ladies.

WE INTERRUPT THIS LONDON REPORT......

if meat is murder send me to jail cause i plan on being at this event.

Be a Butcher: Primal
6pm Sat at Sweetwater Brewery: 195 Ottley Dr NE; Buckhead; 404.691.2537
Hit this one-time meat & greet to commune with local chefs (Nick Melvin of Parish; Todd Richards of Rolling Bones BBQ; Alex Friedman of P’cheen...), who'll teach you how to properly butcher whole animals (pig, cow, goat, lamb), cook them using advanced methods over hickory, Applewood, or almond wood flames, and let you gobble up the results. There'll also be 35 pounds of TN-based Benton’s bacon, wood-fired oysters, and whole wheels of hardwood-grilled artisan cheese, plus brews from Sweetwater and an Oregon wine tasting including vineyards like Van Duzer, Daedalus Cellars, and Firesteed, which'll have you boasting Wednesday morning that you're hungover like a horse.
Photo: Stacy Cahill

LONDON PARIS AMSTERDAM AND MOBILE

These are my favorite cities in the world and I just got back from my first visit to London. I have been to the other cities many times, but never to London. It was a great weekend trip. Left Thursday evening and arrived 7 a.m. Friday. Checked into hotel then headed to Tate Modern for the POP LIFE exhibit.

The Tate Modern is housed in an old power station smack dab on the Thames. It is huge with large open space and lot's of small galleries. The Tate Modern is one of the greatest modern art museums in the world. The power station closed in 1981 and if not for some forward thinking folks it would have been leveled and replaced with another residential monster. It was rehabbed into the museum and the Tate opened in May of 2000. Just outside it's doors is the beautiful Millennium bridge. A pedestrian bridge designed by Arup, Foster and Partners. When it first opened it got off to a shaky start, literally. The bridge swayed so much it had to be closed for about a year to fix the problem. I took this picture from the 3rd floor restaurant in the Tate. That is St. Paul's Cathedral in the background. Click on either photo to enlarge.



This next photo was taken on the bridge looking back at the Tate. More on my London weekend soon, please stand by.

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