Po Boy Sandwich

Born in 1929 during a four-month New Orleans streetcar strike that began that July. Brothers Bennie and Clovis Martin — former streetcar conductors turned restaurant owners near the French Market — fed the strikers free sandwiches of roast beef on long French loaves, and the name took hold as they greeted each striker with "here comes another poor boy," the local elision of which became "po' boy." They commissioned Leidenheimer Bakery to bake a loaf with uniform-thick ends so every sandwich filled equally. (The Martin story is the widely told origin but a contested one: it didn't appear in print until 1969, 40 years after the strike.)

Created in 1929 during a four-month New Orleans streetcar strike — brothers Bennie and Clovis Martin, ex-conductors turned restaurant owners, fed strikers free sandwiches and called them 「poor boys.」 Cajun French rendered it 「po boy.」 Leidenheimer Bakery still bakes the only loaf that gets the shatter-crust right; outside the Gulf, no one replicates it.

A foot of Leidenheimer-style French bread split lengthwise, crackling-shatter crust outside and cottony inside, stuffed with fried shrimp or oysters, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickle. Order it "dressed" or it comes naked. The bread is the test: real New Orleans loaves shed crust shrapnel down your shirt; if it's a regular baguette, you're eating a sub.

The bread is the dish. Leidenheimer's recipe uses Louisiana soft wheat with lower protein than baguette flour, giving a lighter crumb and that specific shattering crust. Outside the Gulf, no bakery replicates it — which is why authentic po boys don't travel. The fried filling is double-coated in seasoned flour and corn flour for the crackle that survives mayo.