o' Boy (poe-boy) - The generic name for the standard New Orleans sandwich made with French bread. They are considered a New Orleans institution. Also called poor boy. Always made with French bread, po' boys can be filled with fried oysters, shrimp, fish, soft-shelled crabs, crawfish, roast beef and gravy, roast pork, meatballs, smoked sausage and more. They are served either "dressed" with a full range of condiments (usually mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomatoes) or "undressed" (plain). This sandwich is purely American in its variety of sauces and condiments. It is uniquely New Orleans because the oysters are local, as is the crisp and airy bread.

(1) According to some accounts, this sandwich was created by a Mme. Begue, owner of a coffee stall in New Orleans' Old French Market in 1895. She took a long, thin loaf of French bread, slit it in half lengthwise, buttered it generously, sliced it in thirds or fourths (not cutting through the bottom crust) and put a different fillling into each section The name is said to derive from the pleas of hungry black youths who begged, "Please give a sandwich to a po' boy."

(2) Another predecessor was the Peacemaker Sandwich, a loaf of French bread, split and buttered and filled with fried oysters. The poetic name derives from the fact that 19th-century husbands, coming in late from a carouse or spree, would carry one home to cushion a possible rough reception from the lady of the house.

(3) The generally excepted history is that the Po' Boy sandwich was invented by two brothers, Clovis and Benjamin Martin, in 1929 at their restaurant in the French Market. It is said, true or not, that this sandwich extravaganza began during a local transit worker's strike. The two brothers took pity on those "poor boys" and began offering sandwiches made from leftovers to any workers who came to their restaurant's back door at the end of the day. For five cents, a striker could buy a sandwich filled with gravy and trimmings (end pieces from beef roasts) or gravy and sliced potatoes.

Soon the sandwich, which quickly became known as the po' boy, was being filled with seafood, most notably fried oysters and fried shrimp. In those distant days, shellfish was abundant and cheap. The affluent joined the crowd because, at lunch or snack time, a po' boy filled with oysters was quicker to consume and easier to digest than one filled with roast beef.