Clam Po’boys | Sybaritica

The Po’boy is a type of submarine sandwich native to New Orleans and the Oyster Po’boy is a special variety loaded with fried oysters and other ingredients, including pickles, tomatoes, lettuce and either mayonnaise, or a sauce known as ‘Come back Sauce’ which is, as best as I can describe it, a bit like a seafood cocktail sauce without the horseradish. I have long wanted to try one of these but have not yet had the chance and, since oysters are WAY too expensive to import up here for such a use, I have decided to give my own version a try using Quikiqtarjuaq Clams … 

For this experiment, I am just making small sandwiches and, since the clams I have are super large, I am only going to use 4 per sandwich. They need to be deep-fried but, since I have recently shown you my method for doing that, you can simply refer to my post Deep-Fried Clam Appetizer .

For the whole dish, you need:

  • 8 large Clams (deep-fried in breading);
  • 2 small Submarine-style rolls (buttered);
  • 2 – 3 leaves Lettuce (shredded);
  • 1 small Tomato, sliced;
  • Mayonnaise (or sauce of your choice).

Oyster Po’boys commonly include pickles according to many recipes I have seen but, for my version, I am making a sort of Tartar Sauce using mayonnaise, chopped pickles, capers and chopped  green onion. If you want to try this, you can basically add the ingredients in whatever proportions tickle your fancy.

The Construction

No special instructions here… just build your sandwiches in whichever way looks attractive to you but just make sure that the clams are still at least a bit warm when you do so.

The Verdict

Well… unfortunately, this creation found little favor at my house. I made my wife’s sandwich with just the strips and gave myself the whole clams but, sadly, we were both left unimpressed. It is too bad because, although I think I pretty much recreated the basic traditional sandwich, it just didn’t come close to what I was expecting. I *still* want to try it at a restaurant sometime and I hope it turns out to be a bit better than my first attempt

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