Surf and Turf Poboy at NOLA's Parkway Bakery

An ode to a great sandwich... and I do love sandwiches!

There are classics and then there are, well, true classics.  Some people say the roast beef  and ham poboy with "debris" at Mother's is a New Orleans classic.  In some senses, maybe it is.  However, for my mouth and money, I won't go there.  I'll go to the Parkway Bakery in Mid City.  My good buddy Brandon Brown had been telling me about Parkway for years but I hadn't taken the journey over to Bayou St. John to check it out.  But then I did.  And I ate.  And I told my soul that I'd be back.

The order at Parkway Bakery is simple: Large Surf and Turf Poboy and a side of sweet potato fries.  The New Orleans sandwich features classic French bread, slow cooked roast beef, golden fried shrimp, and Parkway's roast beef gravy.  Obviously you don't order a poboy in New Orleans without lettuce, tomato and mayo as well.  I haven't ever been told to get anything else at Parkway... though I think more than 10 people have indepently suggested the Surf and Turf.  There were only a few variations.  Andrew Rose said to get an extra side of the roast beef gravy for dipping.  Noted, sir.  Matthew Colosino of LunchBoxFab likes to get his Surf and Turf as a shrimp poboy with the gravy on the side.  Close enough.  I suppose.

I went to Parkway, finally, with Jeremy Wells and his family.  It was after we competed in the New Orleans Food Experiment, yet we still found a way to be hungry.  It's a good thing.  That sandwich, the Large Surf and Turf Poboy at Parkway Bakery, is what dreams are made of.  Beef.  Shrimp.  Gravy.  Sandwich.  Simple.  Messy.  Amazing.  I need another.  My stomach grumbles at the thought of it.  My soul yearns for another bite.  I polished off the whole thing.  I could have eaten more... and been miserable.  The most amazingly awesome miserable imaginable.  The crunch of the French bread made with New Orleans water.  The textures and flavors of melted beef and fried shrimp smothered in gravy.  The lettuce and tomato and mayo to make the sandwich complete.  I'll have another.  Very soon.

And yes, the sweet potato fries were good.  Get them.  Some of the best I've ever had.  Hands down.

The Buffet of Buffets: Las Vegas, Nevada

The Buffet of Buffets

Not too long ago a crew of mine from my younger days descended upon Las Vegas, Nevada for a reunion weekend of shenanigans and tomfoolery.  While most of the acts that occurred in Vegas will "stay in Vegas," I couldn't resist returning home to write about one of the most incredible offers known to man: The Buffet of Buffets!

Thanks to Cheetz for the Limo!

In order from left to right, Chetan, John, Tyler, myself, and Chad, met at the airport where a limo picked us up and brought us to the Plaza Hotel and Casino.  I really enjoyed staying off of The Strip as downtown is such a more relaxed and old-school Vegas atmosphere.  Still, a couple nights later we made our way to Las Vegas Boulevard to experience a culinary conquest like no others.  The Buffet of Buffets is offered by seven Harrah's owned properties.  For one very reasonable price ($39.99 for rewards card holders, $44.99 without the card), diners get 24 hours of access to all seven buffets.  Conceivably it is possible to do all seven.  Perhaps one day I'll try that.  But since we had other things to occupy our time in between buffets, we did manage to hit three of their most famous destinations of glutony.

Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas

Our first stop brought the clan to lunch at the Lago Buffet in Caesar's Palace.  No, Caesar didn't actually live there.  But, the casino/resort is a spectacular place with statues, vaulted archways, and decor that really brings you back to the days of old... minus the constant ringing of slot machines that echo the majestic halls.

Chefs at the Lago Buffet

Lago Buffet had a line accumulated outside its entrance at 1 PM.  Despite the wait time, we knew our dining experience would be worth it.  The Buffet of Buffets kicks off when you arrive at any of the seven buffets on the Harrah's list.  Upon purchasing the buffet, your rewards card is activated that allows their computer system to know exactly when its 24 hour window has expired.  With a time stamp of around 2 PM, we knew how long we had to make our rounds the following day.

The Lago Buffet stuck to their specialties.  The menu featured some Italian and Asian cuisines as well as some excellent herb-roasted meats, a divine dish of braised beef, and some of the best biscotti I've ever tasted.  All in all the buffet offered legitimate quality, wide enough selection, and a commitment to keeping up the standards of the cuisine they produced.  While the Lago Buffet did not offer food from all four corners of the map, they made up for it with doing what they do really well.

Prime rib (left) and bacon-wrapped pork (right)

Plate #2 at Lago Buffet.. the mac & cheese and green beans held their own

Dessert plate at Lago Buffet: the biscotti (far left) stole the show

No caption needed

By the time that evening rolled around we had somehow rolled our way over to the Rio.  We killed a couple hours gambling and allowing our stomachs to settle before meandering over to the world famous Carnival World Buffet.  This behemoth of an eatery seems easily as large as a football field.  It is a hike to get from one end to the other.  Carnival World's gimmick is to offer such a wide variety of international and American cuisines that it would be impossible to not find something to satisfy your taste buds.  The buffet stretched from country to country, continent to continent to come pretty darn close to capturing global cuisine all in one spot.  On my first plate I hit up the meats that were right in the center of the World.  Fresh glazed ham, tender and rare prime rib, and surprisingly delicious sausage were sliced on site and plated to order.  The clear winner, among everything that the Carnival World Buffet had to offer, was the prime rib.  That night, I'd venture to say they had the best prime rib in Vegas.  It was cooked rare, expertly seasoned, and as juicy as a fresh peach.  I got both the end and a center cut off the slab of beef and went to town.  The flavor popped in my mouth and for a brief moment, while I was sitting there amongst a sea of indulgence, I didn't care about anything in the world other than getting that next fork of cow into my mouth.

Ham, prime rib, and sausage awaiting their digestion

Immaculate.  Glorious.  Beef.

Unfortunately, while the prime rib highlighted the trip to Carnival World, the rest of the fare didn't stack up.  It seemed to me that they tried to do too much and focused way more on quantity than the quality of all the little niche cuisine offerings.  The Mexican section didn't even look edible, the sushi was a poor attempt at sub-par rolls, the pizza was alright, but not stellar for the kind of oven they had there, and the American section was downright disappointing.  Still, I'd go back from the prime rib.  I hope it wasn't a fluke.

Carnival World plate #1: check out that prime rib!

You think they go through some crab legs?

Carnival World plate #2... you can actually see the plate in this picture!  And yes, that is a corn dog.  No, it wasn't good.

Desserts at Carnival World... the cookies and cream gelato rocked.

After another night at the blackjack tables at the Plaza with our new friends Janice, Toi, and Kimmy (oops, maybe that was supposed to stay in Vegas... nah, it's on Facebook, so it's official), we were set to leave Vegas.  However, none of us flew out until around 6 PM the next day so we naturally had time to hit up one more buffet in order to make the Buffet of Buffets worth it.  We had stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, so needless to say we skipped breakfast and decided to head back to The Strip where we would hit up lunch at Planet Hollywood's Spice Market Buffet.  While our bellies and digestive tracts were still a little out of sorts from the two buffets the previous day, I was really looking forward to the Spice Market Buffet.  Unfortunately, it fell flat on its face.  We made it through the line just in time to be within our 24 hour window, and from a distance the food looked great.  Like the setup at Carnival World, the Spice Market had a carving station in the middle and was flanked on each side by as series of international cuisine stations.

Plate #1 at the Spice Market Buffet in the Planet Hollywood Casino

After loading up a plate with a selection of prime rib, some Asian fare, a small taste of Mexico and France, and a few morsels of dried out chicken that represented the Middle East, I met my buddies at the table and began to chow down.  Unfortunately, I was hard pressed to find something on my plate that I wanted to take more than one bite of.  The prime rib was the biggest disappointment by far.  One look at that picture and you can tell how well done and over-cooked it was.  It looked to me like they left last night's beef in the oven for too long.  After eating the beautiful rare prime rib the night before, I pushed this rubbish off to the side and refused to take a second bite.  I went back to the prime rib station at Carnival World twice more before leaving, and every chuck of bovine glory that they sliced was well done.  What a shame.  As for the rest of the food, the best item may have been the spicy boneless chicken wings.  Yeah, exactly.  If that's the best thing, I could have just gone to get chicken wings at Hooters (or anywhere else for that matter).  Oh well.  I guess "lunch" on a Monday at Planet Hollywood really just means "Sunday dinner's leftovers."

All in all I was still blown away by the value of the Buffet of Buffets.  For $40 I got three full, gigantic meals at three totally different buffets inside of three of Vegas's most famous resorts... and there were still another four that I never got to try!  The Lago Buffet at Caesar's Palace wins my award for best all-around buffet of the three.  The selection wasn't as great, but what they lacked in quantity to the other two buffets was easily made up for in quality.  My other award for best single food item goes to the prime rib at Carnival World at the Rio.  I could have eaten nothing but that for three days and been satisfied.  The biscotti at Lago would come in second.  In closing, God Bless America, and thanks to Harrah's for allowing us to wallow around Vegas in such glutinous glory!

#10 Hunter's Club at Jimmy John's

After a recent late night at work I swung by Jimmy John's on the way home to grab a sandwich for dinner.  While there I had a chat with Kyle, the owner and a friend of mine from college, about his business, my blog, and our mutually share passions for travel and good food.  Kyle opened the reasonably new Jimmy John's location in Baton Rouge, the first and only one in Louisiana, on Perkins Road near the overpass.  I wrote about Jimmy John's in one of my first blog posts ever, but now I have pictures, so I thought it was time for an update!

The J.J. Sign Looking Towards Perkins Road

Kyle's team is a fun and energetic crew that makes sub-style sandwiches with a purpose.  Their assembly line flows far better than the Baton Rouge traffic outside the restaurant, so it is really never a bad idea to stop in for a bite or call in the order for delivery! 

The Jimmy John's Crew Busy at Work

On this visit I took a shot at the #10 Hunter's Club which features a 1/4 pound of medium rare roast beef, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo all aboard Jimmy John's signature fresh-baked bread.  I opted for dijon mustard instead of the mayo cause that's what I do. 

#10 Hunter's Club at Jimmy John's

The sandwich tasted delicious.  The fresh, thinly sliced roast beef melted in my mouth and combined with the provolone to create a wonderful flavor profile.  The soft bread held the sandwich together perfectly as the tomato and mustard worked together to accent the sub.  I do love a good sandwich.  The only thing I found wrong is that the Jimmy John's crew, apparently in a rush to get a catering job wrapped up and delivered, forgot to add the lettuce to my sub.  No worries though.  It made me feel even more like a wild hunter man as I devoured the meat and cheese sandwich and proceeded to lick my fingers to get every morsel of flavor onto my tongue!  I'll be back, that's for sure.  Thanks Kyle, and keep up the good work!

A Lunch Poboy at Downtown Seafood and Grill

Downtown Baton Rouge is alive with places to eat for lunch.  Another hidden gem in the mix on Third Street is Downtown Seafood and Grill.  This little restaurant uses a couple deep fryers and a flattop grill to turn delicious seafood into golden brown delicacies and raw beef patties into fresh 3/4 pound cheeseburgers.  Downtown Seafood does not offer a great variety on their menu but instead does a few things well.  Burgers, poboys, and... well, that's about it really.  I suppose their fried seafood plates are pretty good too, but everyone goes there for the sandwiches!

Downtown Seafood and Grill, Third Street, Baton Rouge

I've been to DSG on multiple occasions and can say that their seafood poboys and burgers are quality, affordable grub.  It certainly isn't gourmet, but it is rather tasty!  On a recent visit I decided to try something a little different and ordered a three-meat poboy instead of fried seafood or a burger.

Three-Meat Poboy at Downtown Seafood and Grill

The sandwich came out hot and fresh.  The meats weren't as plentiful as I had hoped based on how they liberally fling fried shrimp between the french bread on the shrimp poboy.  Their bread is rather good, but nothing that they bake in house or anything.  It usually is the french bread that makes or breaks a poboy in my opinion, and DSG does alright in that regard.  The sandwich included ham, turkey, and roast beef but the only cheese option sadly happened to be the same American cheese that they melt on the burger patties.  Overall it was a satisfying lunch but from now on when I hit up this spot on Third Street I'm going to get a fried shrimp or fried chicken poboy.  Those are the real winners!  Cheers.