1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (152 page)

Where:
Any supermarket or grocery store.
Further information and recipes:
Oreo with a Twist
by Oreo and Jennifer Darling (1999);
oreo.com
(click Recipes);
epicurious.com
(search oreo overkill pie);
cookstr.com
(search chocolate cream sandwiches; mississippi mud pie).

Cornmeal-fried oysters in NOLA’s signature sandwich.

The signature sandwich of the city of New Orleans, the po’boy belongs to the general class of handheld super-sandwiches like heroes, subs, gyros, and grinders—this one a Depression-era staple first created around 1929, when the coffee shop owners and onetime streetcar workers Bennie and Clovis Martin were trying to find a cheap and easy way to feed their former colleagues, who were on strike for higher pay. “Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming,” Bennie Martin recalled, “one of us would say, ‘Here comes another poor boy.’” The Martins enlisted a baker named John Gendusa (whose eponymous bakery is still in operation in New Orleans, with his great-grandson at the helm) to create loaves wide enough to hold substantial fillings that were cheap then, and a sandwich classic was born.

New Orleans–style French bread was already well suited to the sandwiching task: unusually crumbly on the outside, but very soft and airy inside. Its texture partially results from the city’s high ambient humidity, which
causes the yeast to become more active. One notable variation is the homemade pan bread, more of a Sicilian loaf, used on the epic oyster po’boys at the venerable Casamento’s.

Several po’boy versions around town are considered authentic, with fillings ranging from roast beef and gravy to fried shrimp, and they’re happily joined by newfangled contrivances like the cheeseburger po’boy. But the most cherished of all is the po’boy plumped with local, cornmeal-coated, fried Gulf Coast oysters. The juicy, crisp golden oysters are the filling that makes the sandwich truly sing, and the ingredient that truly established its fame.

A po’boy may be dressed, meaning it will be slathered with mayo or rémoulade and piled with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onions. But the fewer trappings the better, to allow the full flavor of oysters accented by lemon and a dressing to truly speak for itself.

Where:
In New Orleans
, Acme Oyster House, tel 504-522-5973,
acmeoyster.com
; Casamento’s, tel 504-895-9761,
casamentosrestaurant.com
;
in Akers, LA
, Middendorf’s, tel 985-386-6666,
middendorfsrestaurant.com
;
in Baton Rouge, LA
, Tony’s Seafood Market & Deli, tel 225-357-9669,
tonyseafood.com
;
in Asheville, NC
, The Oyster House Brewing Co., tel 828-575-9370,
oysterhousebeers.com
;
in New York
, The Lobster Place at Chelsea Market, tel 212-255-5672,
lobsterplace.com
; Pearl Oyster Bar, tel 212-691-8211,
pearloysterbar.com
;
in Toronto
, for fried oysters, Oyster Boy, tel 416-534-3432,
oysterboy.ca
.
Further information and recipes:
The Hog Island Oyster Lover’s Cookbook
by Jairemarie Pomo (2007); for fried oysters,
Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen
by Paul Prudhomme (1984);
saveur.com
(search crabby jack’s oyster po’boy).
Special event:
Oak Street Po-Boy Festival, New Orleans, November,
poboyfest.com
.

Not even hot dogs and burgers are more thoroughly American than peanut butter, the mainstay of many a juvenile diet and a pleasure—if a secret one—for cupboard raiders of any age. The peanut,
Arachis hypogaea
, is in fact not really a nut at all, belonging instead to the bean family, Leguminosae. The indigenous plant with a winding green stalk was already well known to the Native Americans by the time Columbus reached the New World; in the sixteenth century, it found its way to Europe by way of the Portuguese, who prized it for its oil, which they used in cooking.

But peanut butter lovers owe the greatest thanks to Dr. George Washington Carver, who, in the early twentieth century, encouraged the cultivation of the peanut as a source of
nourishment, especially for the poor. He may not have envisioned peanut butter as the primary outcome of his efforts, but the thick, creamy, intensely nutty spread has become one of America’s favorite snacks, especially spread on bread, toast, crackers, matzo, or even celery—and best enjoyed with a glass of cold milk to prevent the peanut butter panic that ensues when large clumps stick to the roof of the mouth or the back of the tongue.

As a sandwich spread, peanut butter is classically combined with grape jelly, which carries a high “ick” factor for those who prefer less cloying accompaniments like raspberry jam or apple butter. Another alternative, Elvis’s famous addition of banana slices and bacon strips, has rightfully achieved peanut-butter-sandwich infamy. Minus the banana, that bacon can join a splash of Tabasco sauce to create a delectable peanut butter sandwich with a hint of fire. And outside of the sandwich realm, in Southeast Asia and beyond, the spread is the basis of many sauces and dips.

Although it’s widely available from producers far and wide—whether creamy or complete with crunchy pieces of peanut, pure or blended with various flavors of nonpeanut oils—peanut butter is easily made at home, the main requirement besides the nuts being a food processor and seasonings of choice. A slight tingle of salt and a minimal amount of sugar (if any) keep the taste from becoming insipid, and the nuts must be purchased roasted—roasting adds the spread’s characteristic burnished depth and helps to keep it fresher longer, despite a slight loss of valuable nutrients such as protein, vitamin B, and niacin.

Yield: 1 pound

1 pound shelled, roasted peanuts, with or without skins (see
Note
)

1 teaspoon salt

1 to 2 tablespoons unhydrogenated peanut oil, if needed

Pinch of sugar (optional)

1.
Divide the nuts into 4 equal parts. Put 1 batch in a food processor and process until the nuts are very coarsely cracked, to about the size of capers. Remove and reserve.

2.
Process the second batch of nuts finer; they should have a fairly thick texture but still have some small distinct pieces. Remove and add to the reserved first batch.

3.
Process the remaining 2 batches together to a very fine, butterlike puree, until the oil begins to ooze out of the mass. Remove and add this batch to the coarser 2 batches.

4.
Sprinkle the peanut butter with the salt and, using a wooden spoon, gently but thoroughly blend all of the batches together. If the mixture is too dry to be spreadable, add a little peanut oil gradually until you have a spreadable consistency.

5.
Taste and blend in additional salt and/or a pinch of sugar, if needed. Pack the peanut butter into a jar or crock, cover tightly, and store in a cool place (the refrigerator on a hot day) for at least 8 hours before serving. Stored in the refrigerator, the peanut butter will keep for about 2 months, although you may have to stir the oil back in if any rises to the surface.

Note:
Peanut skins add flavor and fiber, so are best left on. However, for those who prefer the creamiest texture, the skins can be rubbed off by placing the nuts between two clean kitchen towels and gently rubbing back and forth.

Retail and mail order:
In New York
, Peanut Butter & Co., tel 212-677-3995,
ilovepeanutbutter.com
; The Peanut Shoppe of Williamsburg, tel 800-637-3268,
thepeanutshop.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food
by Jon Krampner (2012);
creamyandcrunchy.com
.

Beneath a smooth, tan oval shell, its twin nutmeats look like elongated, withered, and darkened walnuts, but their flavor is deeper and woodsier, their texture softer and juicier. The pecan is North America’s gift to a nutty world; as
Carya illinoensis
, it is a member of the hickory family whose English name derives from the Algonquin Indians, who called it
paccan.
Though it’s been cultivated in Israel, South Africa, and Australia, its primary growing regions remain the American South and Mexico.

Justifiably popular in sugary Louisiana praline candies, roasted in spicy butter or in a sugar glaze as cocktail nibblers, or adding a nice chomp to ice cream, brownies, and cookies, the nut’s real excuse for being is in the crunchy, opulently silky, sweet pie most famously baked from Georgia to Texas, where the best pecans are harvested.

An open piecrust, buttery and flaky, holds the thick mosaic of toasted pecan halves nestled against a soft corn-syrup gel seasoned with sugar, vanilla, and a good dash of rum or brandy. Whispers of cinnamon or nutmeg may join the fray, and the baked pie may be served with a spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. But to best preserve maximum crunch and the contrast between crisp nuts and crust and soft filling, savor it on its own.

A rich staple of the Thanksgiving table, the pie offsets its calorie content with a healthy portion of the nineteen vitamins and minerals pecans are said to provide, plus antioxidant, cholesterol-lowering, and brain-protecting properties.

Where:
In Somerville, MA
, Petsi Pies, tel 617-661-7437,
petsipies.com
;
in Lecompte, LA
, Lea’s Lunchroom, tel 318-776-5178,
leaslunchroom.com
;
in Houston
, Goode Co. at multiple locations,
goodecompany.com
.
Mail order:
For pecan pie in a wooden gift box,
goodecompany.com
(search brazos).
Further information and recipes:
Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking
by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart (2012);
Sarabeth’s Bakery
by Sarabeth Levine with Rick Rogers (2010);
epicurious.com
(search old-fashioned pecan pie).

The fiery orange-red, honey-ripe persimmon may be one of nature’s most alluring gifts, requiring only a silvery spoon to dip into its satiny, jamlike center. With a sweet-tart flavor and a teasingly silky pulp, it’s a fruit with serious seductive
appeal, and just as much mystique. Various parts of the world claim some of the many, many types of persimmons as their own, and in his engrossing 1911 food guide,
The Grocer’s Encyclopedia
, Artemas Ward describes it as “a fruit concerning which there is much confusion of information—and misinformation—even in works otherwise generally reliable.”