Wednesday, July 31, 2013.
Bubbling. The Most Beautiful Chicken Salad. Barbecue Ham Poor Boy.
Lately I've heard what sounds like water coming to a boil from the engine of my PT Cruiser after I shut it down. Not leaking, not overheating. . . just that funny sound. Brought it to the shop; they said it was overdue for a flush and a cooling system cleanout. It took too long for me to make the trip into town for the radio show. I suppose that's a good enough excuse.
After my standard three hours of jawing about chewing, Mary Leigh put forth a request that we have dinner at Bear's Po-Boys. That's a funny one. Mary Leigh doesn't like sandwiches. (She even eats her beloved hamburger without a bun.)
"They have this great chicken salad," she said. Really? Bear's, whose ability to turn out a fine roast beef poor boy is unquestionable, doesn't strike me as chicken-salad kind of place. At least not up to my daughter's exacting salad standards. (She has become my Salad Editor, adding to her long-running tenure as Hamburger Editor and Cheese Fry Editor.)
I didn't have to taste the salad to understand her excitement. This is the most beautiful chicken salad I've ever seen. Its most impressive merit is that all the ingredients--including the dressing and the chunks of fried chicken--are evenly distributed on and in the bed of greens.
For me, a barbecue ham poor boy. This is a sandwich I first encountered when I was a student at UNO, and our gang made frequent raids on the Po-Boy Bakery on Franklin Avenue at Filmore. (That place became, after its total flooding by Katrina, the progenitor of the modern Koz's Po-Boys.)
The idea is simple and tastes much better than it sounds: a grilled ham poor boy with the usual dressings (including the mayo), plus barbecue sauce. This one captured most of the possible deliciousness, except for one thing: while the bread was warm, it could have been toasted to even better effect. If I ever open a poor boy shop (don't hold your breath), I will have in it one of those big Blodgett pizza ovens, through which every sandwich other than muffulettas will pass before going to the eater.
Bear's Grill & Spirits. Mandeville: 4700 LA 22. 985-674-9090.
