[title type="h5"]Saturday, February 1, 2014.[/title]
We are rid of January, and am I glad! But February is no prizewinner, even though among its days are my birthday, our anniversary, and the Carnival season.
WWL used my three hours for an extended discussion about the Super Bowl. I wonder if Booy and Deke would have bothered if they had known how it would turn out. (I have the advantage here of writing these entries several days after the fact.)
Mary Ann wanted me to lunch with her at the Po-Boy Company, a new shop just off the Causeway Blvd.-LA 22 intersection. She must have the place in her crosshairs for selling them an ad package. This is her second attempt to get me interested in the place. A week or to ago she came home with a roast beef poor boy from there, to see if I could guess who made it.
I hungered for a poor boy during the many days I was stuck in stir at home during the sleet storm. I could both have another roast beef and try something new simultaneously through the ordering of a Ferdi with barbecue sauce.
The girl behind the counter had a great attitude, telling me that while nobody had ever asked for such a thing, it sounded like a wonderful combination. She also expressed her approval of our other order of a fried shrimp and oyster plate, with a side or remoulade. Most employees in her position would express doubt as to whether the kitchen would make such an off-menu concoction, then worry about whether they were charging the right price. More than afew times I have been denied a dish just because a price could not be determined.
Quite a few poor boy vendors around town offer a Ferdi sandwich. The original version was served in the 1930s at Mother's, when a regular customer named Ferdinand asked to have both ham and roast beef on his sandwich. It was instantly popular, enough to spin off two other sandwiches: the turkey Ferdi (which has a dual identity, depending on whether the roast beef or the ham were on there with the turkey) and the Ralph--a Ferdi with cheese. The latter was invented seconds after the Ferdi was. Ralph was in back of Ferdi in line, and thought he could improve on Ferdi's creation.
I don't think Mother's ever trademarked the name Ferdi. If so, then many poor boy outfits are making unauthorized use of the name. In more recent times, the generic-sounding name "char-broiled oysters" used by Drago's has also gone into wide usage. Compare this to the typical chain restaurant 's menu, riddled with the ® symbol for their allegedly original creations. You can't protect a dish, really, but you can lay claim to its name. The ® symbol is a reliable indicator of a restaurant with a contrived cuisine.
Speaking of. . . a few days ago I received a press release announcing the postponement (because of the nasty weather) of an important announcement from the Lakeside Mall. New Orleans dominant shopping center says that it will expand its footprint into the under-utilized northeast corner of its parking lot. And that the new addition will include the first Louisiana appearance of the nation's strongest income-per-square-foot restaurant. They didn't reveal its identity, but the place could be nothing other than The Cheesecake Factory. I told the Marys about this separately, and got both of them to squeal with delight by doing so.
[caption id="attachment_41121" align="alignnone" width="480"]
A barbecue Ferdi at the Po-Boy Company[/caption]
Getting back to the Ferdi at the Po-Boy Company, it was both good and very filling. The fried seafood plate was fresh and hot, but the coating and frying formulae could use a little more polish. Mary Ann and I had been talking about going out to dinner tonight, but this meal would do us in for the day. Or so I thought. Around seven in the evening, she asked if I wanted a little sandwich. I didn't think that what she would bring would qualify as a full-fledged ham and cheese poor boy, but there it was.
[caption id="attachment_41122" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Shrimp and oyster platter at the Po-Boy Company.[/caption]
It was a cool but lovely, day, and I was able to return to my walking regimen for the first time in a week. Winter fattens one up in many ways.
[title type="h5"]The Po-Boy Company. Mandeville: 1817 North Causeway Blvd. 985-778-2460. [/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris February 07, 2014 13:01 in
