Cross chicken fried steak with a po-boy, or Vietnamese banh mi with Korean barbecue on local French bread. How about a po-boy with shredded duck instead of roast beef, or a hot sausage po-boy so spicy it comes with a heat advisory?
Are these the latest wild mashups designed to grab attention on the social media scroll? Emphatically no.
They’re examples of long-running house specials at po-boy shops that I’ve revisited recently while digging into the lesser-known corners of the New Orleans po-boy world.
Much of this thrives not in New Orleans itself, but next door in Jefferson Parish at joints that are practically invisible unless you already know where they are. Some are on backstreets, embedded in neighborhoods or well off the tourist trail…