You mess with New Orleans food traditions at your peril.
See any attempt by big brands to make gumbo more “healthy”— especially that richly-reviled Disney recipe with quinoa and kale.
But here’s a counterpoint: it matters greatly who’s doing the messing around, and why.
See the Oak Street Po-Boy Fest, which returns this Sunday, Nov. 6.
Through Covid, it’s been two years since we’ve had the full version of the Poboy fest, but the format remains familiar.
Over the years, I’ve eaten po-boys here that would raise howls of indignation on social media were they suggested from afar. But instead they draw throngs of New Orleans people eager to give it all a try in person.
This year calamari parmesan , fried lobster tail, Mexican chorizo, Thai basil steak, crawfish cheese fries, escargot (yes, snails) and boudin made with smoked beef all turned into po-boys.
There are vegan po-boys with oyster mushrooms and plant-based shrimp (because that’s a thing) and ice cream po-boys for dessert.
The reasons for the different reaction are that these are festival riffs on favorites, the people concocting them are locals, and that they are presented next to faithful renditions of the classics too.
Many of these Po-boy Fest creations exist only for the festival, one-day offerings. And that’s part of the fun.
As always, this setting is an important part of the festival. Oak Street is a historic, low-rise corridor of shops and offices that looks like a picture of Main Street USA.
The times we’ve lived through, the same crisis that put the Po-boy Fest on hiatus, have been especially hard on the small businesses that make up any street like this, and Oak Street is no different. But once again, it’s the promise of po-boys unlike anywhere else that will bring people out for a party they know can only be in New Orleans.
