A Tale of Two Sandwiches

 Blithe She-Does-Her-Best-to-Suit-Herself Correspondent Cynthia reports:

We didn’t have too many sandwiches in New Orleans, but there were two that were noteworthy.

When we got to New Orleans around 2:30 in the afternoon, I was starving. It was a difficult time to arrive because any restaurants on my “list” were done serving lunch and not yet open for dinner. So, we headed to the Acme Oyster House for a po- boy. Yum Yum. You forget how good those sandwiches are. Mine was called a “Peace Maker” –fried oysters & shrimp, tabasco mayo, lettuce & tomato. *(see side note below about WHY we arrived at 2:30 without having eaten any lunch)

No idea why it is called a peace maker — isn’t a peace maker a pistol? Jon and I each polished off one of these, plus a beer or two. Then we sure didn’t need anything else to eat that day.

 A few days later I was hanging out alone shopping on Magazine Street. There are some areas of Magazine Street that have a lot of restaurants, but the area where I happened to be at lunch time was a bit short on food. I was trying to figure out what to do when I happened upon Stein’s Deli and walked in to check it out.

What a great place! A jewish/italian deli with tons of great sandwiches, plus picnic tables indoors and out to sit down and eat.  I almost hate to admit it but I had a vegetarian sandwich (chedder, swiss, provolone, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, cucumber and artichokes with a lemony dressing on a house-made ciabatta).

I had eaten oysters and pork for two days straight and was in need of something “lighter.” And it was, crisp, refreshing, and delicious.

 The fellow across the table happened to inquire why I was photographing my sandwich, so I explained the blog. He said that he had quite a few recommendations for sandwich places in New Orleans, so hopefully he’ll email some in. I believe (but am not quite sure) that the guy and the sandwich were both named “Dan.”

 Anyway, he was a New Orleans fire fighter who told me about rescuing folks after Katrina. He estimated that he helped bring in more than 250 people by boat the first day. Quite a story. And, he allowed me to take his photo (nice lookin guy AND sandwich!)

So, two great NOLA sandwich experiences.

I got the vicarious pleasure – very vivid – and two new places for the Lunch Encounter directory. The Acme had slipped my mind. Stein’s is all new to me. They do know a thing or two about sandwiches in New Orleans. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Cindy.

*An aside about the first sandwich…
So, Jon and I arrived at the airport at 8:00 a.m. and went to get our boarding passes. We got the passes, but couldn’t check our bags. We got someone to help us who said, “oh, you’re having trouble because you can’t check your bags more than 4 hours before a flight.”
“But our flight is at 9:55,” we protested.
“That’s right” he said, “9:55 p.m.”
We took in the fact that our Saturday in NO had just disappeared before our eyes. Then we started making arrangements to fly standby. I think we were both too pained to eat anything as we waited to see if we’d get on the 11:45 flight.
Well, we got on and ate the 8-10 pretzels that you get on flights these days, and arrived famished.
I believe this is the only time that Jon has booked tickets without explicit instructions from me. It probably won’t happen again for quite some time.