He Does It Again

Chef Mark Falgoust of Grand Isle owns Po-Boy Fest. His Shrimp Caminada took down Best in Show last year, and he avoided the sophomore slump by earning two awards this year: Best Specialty Seafood with his Smoked Fish Po-Boy and Best in Pork with his Boucherie Po-Boy (pictured). Chef Mark told us that he spent the last two weeks curing meats for this cornucopia of pork, which mimicked the perennial favorite banh mi that were noticeably absent from this year's festival. The Boucherie Po-Boy featured pork pate, bologna, head cheese, and baked ham (all made in house) with cucumber, pickled red onion, and cracklins drizzled with Steen's cane syrup.

That's pork 5 ways on one sandwich. It's a porkapalooza between bread. The Pork Bomb.com Po-Boy. If ever there were a worthy adversary to the pig, it is Mark Falgoust. Cracklins and cane syrup should replace popcorn at the movie theatre. Someone get Adolfo on the phone.

Now, we might as well address the elephant in the room - or perhaps, more appropriately, the 40,000 people in the street. I love eating po-boys, drinking beer on a fall Sunday afternoon, and leisurely strolling down Oak Street. Unfortunately, it's kind of tough to do all those things at Po-Boy Fest. At times it felt as if Oak Street had transformed itself into the Superdome walkways during halftime, with people slowly moving in a continuous herd which at any second could suck in those innocently standing on the fringe. I think that the line for GW Fins' Fried Lobster Po-Boy was as long as every wait for the Plaza level women's restrooms... combined.

But to be honest, I don't know if Palmer Park would have been any better. This year's Po-Boy Fest took up over 7 blocks of Oak Street plus many of the side streets. That is a lot of area, probably more than the empty green space at the corner of Carrollton and Claiborne. And I tend to side with the merchants of Oak Street who lay claim to starting the festival and its original purpose of drawing attention to their businesses via the Main Street Program. But then again, there are people who go to Po-Boy Fest but never eat a po-boy because the lines are 30 minutes long and half the vendors are sold out by 5:00. I was shocked at the number of people there at 11:30 this year.

Perhaps it's time to make Po-Boy Fest a two day affair with the goal of spreading out the crowds. Plus, the vendors would probably sell more po-boys and the resident businesses more merchandise.

Does anyone else out there have a solution? How was your experience at this year's Po-Boy Fest?

Saints Bye Week Makes for a Big Weekend

There is no such thing as an "off weekend" in the fall in New Orleans. The Saints bye week has left the door open for a number events to fill in the calendar, so strap on your boots for a busy weekend of eating and drinking.

On Saturday, the Broad Street Brewhaha will take place on the roof of the old Schwegmann's at 300 N Broad Street. The event will feature pick me ups from Coffee Roasters of New Orleans and beers by Abita, NOLA Brewing, Lazy Magnolia, Heiner Brau, and Bayou Teche. (Look out next year for Tin Roof to be added to the list.) Admission is free, and a $10 sample card guarantees you 10 3-ounce pours of the beers of your choice.

Sidenote: We wish we were going to the Carnivale de Vin Gala on Saturday night, but Santa did not deliver us the $1000 tickets as early Christmas presents. But if anyone wants to buy us Auction Item #16 entitled "A Few Bites of the Big Apple", we would quickly get over missing the gala. Moving on.

The premiere event of the weekend is the 4th Annual Po-Boy Festival, which will takse place along a seven block stretch of Oak Street beginning at Carrollton. The festival starts at 11:00am, and I advise you to arrive early as the crowds can get quite thick later in the afternoon. The map of po-boy purveyors can be found here, and from experience I can tell you that the booths farther from Carrollton are more likely to have shorter lines. (By the way, we are terribly disappointed that Dong Phuong is not on the list this year.) Finally, as you may recall, we served as "celebrity judges" for last year's Po-Boy Contest, but apparently our star has faded because we will not be on the panel this year. It was a good run.

Also on Sunday, La Boca will be hosting Asado Night at Rio Mar. The all you can eat meat feast features beef, lamb, pork, chicken, morcilla, and chorizo plus other La Boca favorites like provoleta and empandas. The cost is $50 per person and seating is limited, so call 525-8205 ASAP to make a reservation.

Last but not least, MVB will once again be open for business on Sunday night at Slim Goodies beginning at 5:00pm. With this week's recent shout out in the press, the MVB team is gearing up for what will hopefully be another successful burger weekend. One final note, the above linked article mistakenly listed this week's special as last week's. Just to clarify, this week's special is the "South of the Burger" - burger, blackbean and chipotle puree, guacamole, tomatillo crema, queso fresco, and grilled red onion. On The Pope's scale of deliciousness, we think it qualifies as "Lovin' in Your Mouth."

So. Many. Po-Boys.

We are still digesting the onslaught of po-boys that we consumed yesterday at the Po-Boy Preservation Festival, but a quick recovery is needed with the Thanksgiving marathon of eating coming up on Thursday. We ate A LOT of po-boys yesterday (too many to recount, in fact), and there was a whole bunch of non-po-boy related fun that is also worth mentioning. So here's a photo diary of our 7 hours on Oak Street. Pictures courtesy of The Folk Singer and Mary Magdalene's camera.

As you probably already know, we were asked to serve as judges for the po-boy contest. The luck of the draw sent Rene to the roast beef table and myself to the seafood (non-shrimp) table with Lorin Gaudin. I don't know if that gig qualifies as us "celebrity judges" per se, but at least one person didn't think so, as is evident from this conversation between a curious woman watching The Folk Singer snap some action shots:

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Random Woman: What celebrity judge are you taking pictures of?

The Folk Singer: Haha, just my boyfriend.

Random Woman: (Silence evidencing disappointment.)

The Folk Singer: But Robert Peyton is up there.

Random Woman: Oh my God! I love him!

There were plenty of non-conventional po-boy options, including the sukiyaki po-boy from Little Tokyo.

Here we have the "Extra Special Peacemaker" from Palace Cafe. What made it "extra special" was the addition of brie fondue to the combination of fried oysters and shrimp. It didn't do it for me, but others liked it.

The lines for Dong Phuong's banh mi were some of the longest at the festival. After finishing our judging duties, I joined in the queue for one of my own. While waiting, a friend tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Man, you really love that Vietnamese, don't you?"

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You know it.

The "Shrimpzilla" from New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood Company.

Crescent Pie & Sausage Company was doling out bratwurst po-boys with saurkraut. By the way, their restaurant is now open for business, so check it out.

Mrs. Clara Cvitanovich of Drago's fame was one of my judging partners for the contest, and then she was at her restaurant's booth passing out trays of piping hot chargrilled oysters. And in case you were wondering, Mrs. Clara's favorite po-boy is roast beef.

There was even a po-boy second line.

Here we have the shrimp caminada po-boy from Grand Isle.

There were two music stages setup as opposite ends of the festival. Here is a shot of NOLA's own MyNameIsJohnMichael performing on the Carrollton Stage.

Dessert: fried bread pudding po-boy from Ye Olde College Inn.

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Does anyone have any antacid?