Thursday, May 2, 2013.
Gargantuan Fried Oysters, Nine To The Poor Boy.
"Wednesday, soup! Thursday, roast beef!" That's all I can remember of a song that gave a whole week's menu on Captain Kangaroo, of which I was an avid viewer in my single-digit years. I liked soup back then, but not roast beef. It would be three or four more years before my parrain introduced me to the roast beef poor boy, an event that altered the course of my life.
Somehow, the song worked its way into my mind today, and I had roast beef on my mind. That's why I went again to Sammy's in Metairie, where a month ago I had a first-class roast beef poor boy. I wasn't going to have another one of those, as much as I would have liked to. My job makes me try different dishes every time I go, even if it means denying an impulse. (Please, no violins.)
Tonight, this resulted in an undiminished pleasure. The fried oyster poor boy at Sammy's had only nine oysters on it. It was long enough a piece of French bread for it to have contained at least a dozen and a half. But the size of these oysters would have made any more than nine impossible. They were meaty and hot and crisp and perfect. And I didn't have to run after the oysters that inevitable fall off a poor boy. Pickles and melted butter were the dressings. The bread was hot from the toaster. Just right.
I also had a small version of Sammy's Caesar salad, but it was big enough to be the entree size in a lot of restaurants. The dressing was a bit overloaded, but not enough to complain about.
More about Sammy's in the restaurant report section of today's New Orleans Menu Daily.
Sammy's Po-Boys. Metairie: 901 Veterans Blvd. 504-835-0916.
