Friday, August 5, 2011

The Po' Man's Po' Boy

Regardless of which story you believe the po' boy sandwich is short for poor boy. Some posit that this is because a restaurant served these sandwiches for free to striking workers in the late 1920s. Others think it is because a certain sandwich shop in New Orleans used to throw one of these in for three if you bought a nickel beer. A controversial new theory (proposed by me) suggests that robber barons hated fried fish and shellfish before it was considered a delicacy and used to force their underpaid workers to eat it in between slices of stale bread as their only meal during their eighteen hour workday.

Sadly, this new theory hasn't gotten a lot of traction. Yet!

The Po' Man's Po' Boy


My po' boy really had a lot less to do with being poor than it did with being lazy. It should be called a la' boy. Being poor would be a great justification for not having all the ingredients necessary to make a proper po' boy. Being lazy just happens to result in the same lack of ingredients.

I grilled two sliced of leftover ciabatta while the zucchini-crusted catfish from the other night warmed in the oven. After it was done I placed it inside the grilled ciabatta bread along with a quick sauce I made with mayonnaise, Dijon, relish, and Sir Kensington's spicy ketchup -- a sort of poor man's remoulade. I also sliced up some of the farm tomatoes and served it all with pickles and chips.

One of Jen's least favorite thing is a sandwich for dinner. I was kind enough to save this dish up for when she was out of town.

Spiegelau Beer Connoisseur Glasses


The other day I realized that I had about $350 backed up in Amazon points so I decided to finally use some of it up on these awesome beer-tasting glasses. I also purchased a new tripod for my camera (not pictured) as my old one was beginning to fall apart. These are specialized glasses for enjoying the aromas and flavors of specific beers. You know, if you believe in that sort of thing. I don't, but I do like pretending that you need to serve drinks in the proper glassware. Something about it makes me feel at peace.

Weihenstephaner Kristallweizen


I recently learned of a German beer called kristallweizen. It was a little tricky to find so that heightened my interest in this type of beer. Quite simply it's just a hefeweizen that has had the suspended yeast and wheat particles filtered out so that it has a perfectly clear appearance. I thought if I found this I could mark off another beer I've tried and I could even serve it in the appropriate glass!

A store nearby sold kristallweizen from three different breweries: Erdinger, Tucher, and Weihenstephaner. I chose the Weihenstephaner for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it had the longest name and when it comes to German things that's an important point for me. Secondly, it had the claim on the label that it was the "world's oldest brewer." I found this hard to believe but I admired them for putting this on their label.

After doing a little research it turns out that this brewery is largely considered to be the world's oldest brewery established in approximately 1040 A.D. Only one other brewery has any evidence of possibly being older but, hey, good for those Weihenstephaner folks!

It turns out this tasted exactly like a hefeweizen but appeared perfectly clear. Who could have predicted that? I suppose the same thing could have been achieved with a bottle of hefeweizen and a coffee filter.

But it wouldn't have been as fun!

2 comments:

uberlours said...

Could the same result be achieved with say a Coors Lite and a pair of panty hose?

Unknown said...

Ha! There's nothing really to filter out of a Coors Lite. However, passing a Coors Lite through some panty hose certainly couldn't hurt the taste.