Feb. 15--Po'boys are one of the four major food groups of Mardi Gras (see also: muffalettas, hurricanes, beignets), but there's no reason to stop eating them once the holiday is over. In fact, if you do meatless Fridays during Lent, there's even more incentive to track down this Louisiana sandwich -- the seafood version, of course.
A brief primer if you need it: A po'boy is a baguette stuffed with either meat (often roast beef) or fried seafood, with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and mayo, either mustard (for meat) or melted butter (for seafood), and often hot sauce, too.
Last week's Mardi Gras led me to Big Little's in Lakeview, a city slicker's version of a surfside seafood-and-burger shack, so popular for its fried fish sandwiches that it opened its third location, in Wicker Park, in September.
The softshell crab po' boy ($8) comes with the top piece of bread ajar so you're greeted by a full fried crab, claws poised to play the castanets, staring up at you. Snapchat gold, if you're under 25. But don't waste too long getting the perfect shot, because you want to eat this while it's warm.
A good sandwich is all about texture, and this one nails it. Crunchy crab, with a masterful fry that's thick, but light as a cloud. Creamy, spicy chili aioli, and plenty of it. Soft bread. (Traditionally a po'boy roll has a crisper outside, but this works.) Pickle and a little bit of shredded iceberg, the world's most underrated sandwich lettuce, for more crunch. Good luck pretending you have manners; you'll inhale this with oily crumbs flying left and right.
It's even served in one of those ketchup-red plastic baskets, the ones that look like a checkerboard, to give the illusion you're on the beach somewhere and not in a city where it's 9 degrees. While we're dreaming, I'll have a second sandwich on the house, please. 1034 W. Belmont Ave., 773-857-6677; 860 N. Orleans St., 312-943-0000; 1310 N. Milwaukee Ave., 773-698-7777, www.bigandlittleschicago.com.
mconrad@tribpub.com
Twitter @marissa_conrad
