Fun! Super Good Oyster Po’Boy

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This Oyster Po’Boy is super good and fun!! These delicious fried oysters are served on a buttered and toasted hoagie bun, slathered with homemade Remoulade! I love fried oysters!

Here’s a little history of the po’boy from this link: https://www.whereyat.com/the-history-of-the-po-boy

“No one is going to argue about how important food is to the very identity of New Orleans. The city has graced the culinary world with all kinds of savory (gumbo, crawfish etouffée, red beans and rice) and sweet (beignets, Bananas Foster, sno-balls) creations. One New Orleans food dish, however, is almost deceptive in its simplicity, and that is the humble po-boy.

For the uninitiated, a poor boy (aka po-boy, po’ boy, or po boy) is a sandwich that uses a six-inch or foot-long baguette-style bread that is more commonly known as French bread. Traditionally, po-boys are filled with either roast beef or fried seafood (oysters, shrimp, crab, what have you) and topped with pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayonnaise. Nowadays, however, you can fill a po-boy with basically anything you want (burger patties, hot sausage, french fries, alligator meat, caprese salad, etc.). But for a sandwich with such a modest look, it has a pretty unique history behind it.

The sandwich itself has been present in New Orleans since around the late 1800s, when it was then called an oyster loaf (literally, fried oysters on French loaves). The origins of when it started being called a “po-boy” are actually not too certain, because a lot of different legends have attached themselves to the sandwich over the years. The most common consensus to explain the “po-boy” term, at least locally, comes from the story of the Martin brothers.

In the mid-1910s, Bennie and Clovis Martin moved to New Orleans from their home in Raceland, Louisiana, to work as streetcar conductors. In 1922, the brothers then decided to open up their own restaurant, Martin Brothers’ Coffee Stand and Restaurant, specializing in French loaf sandwiches with anything you wanted on them. These sandwiches wouldn’t be called po-boys until 1929, when members of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America, Division No. 194, went on a four-month- long strike, thereby leaving over a thousand union streetcar workers without a source of income.

The Martin brothers, to show their support for the workers affected by this strike, wrote a letter to one of the local newspapers, stating that they would give a free meal to any members of Division 194. Legend has it that when the brothers saw one of the union workers walk into their restaurant, one of them would yell, “Here comes another poor boy!” Since the free meal given to these workers often included the customary sandwich, the name “poor boy” gradually became associated with the sandwich itself.” Click on the link to read further.

Fun! Super Good Oyster Po’Boy

The oysters are very simple. I’ve seen a lot of recipes use cornmeal, some of the recipes use cornmeal and flour, some of the recipes use lots of spices, but I have found the best breading is a simple all purpose flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

Want another po’boy or sub type sandwich? Check out this recipe on the blog: https://the2spoons.com/perfect-roast-beef-and-provolone-sandwich/.

Here’s the simple recipe for this delicious oyster po’boy. You can substitute the oysters for shrimp if you don’t like oysters. Enjoy!