Red Beans and Rice Review, Week 2 Parran’s Po-Boys 3939 Veterans Blvd. in Metairie This week’s excursion is also in Metairie, Parran’s Po-boy’s on Veterans, between Cleary and Clearview. Parran’s signature dish is the "seafood muffeletta," a combination of shrimp, oysters, and catfish on muffeletta bread with a special dressing. They do pretty good po-boys as well, better than most CBD lunch counters. Of course, their daily plate lunch special yesterday was the same it is in most places in town. Parran’s does something with their red beans lunch I applaud--they offer the plate plain, with no meat, for 3.25. That’s the true spirit of a plate special--cheap! They then sell their beans and rice with either smoked or hot sausage for $3.95. I got the smoked sausage. The plate was a 10-inch elliptical size, the kind you use to serve a po-boy. It was filled. The lunch also came with both corn bread and french bread, a nice twist. My wonder increased as I looked at the french bread and found it was garlic bread. The bread was warm, with a tasty garlic butter spread on it. Instead of a salad, they included a nice-sized square of corn bread. Corn bread is not something unique to New Orleans (the salad would have been, on purely technical merits), but corn bread goes great with red beans. This bread was good, a touch sweet. Parran’s beans were decidedly different from last week’s at Kajun Ken’s. These beans were on the thin side, not so thin that they were really watery, but still thin. I prefer a thicker consistency when I make red beans at home. What made up for the thinness of the beans was that they cooked a good bit of smoked sausage into the beans. While most people use seasoning ham in their beans, I normally use sausage, so this made up a bit for the inadequate consistency. There was enough diced sausage in the beans themselves that almost every bite had a piece of sausage in it. The meat served with the beans was the same smoked sausage, but grilled up and served on top. It was a good-sized piece, sliced down the middle and grilled as two halves. Slicing the sausage accomplishes two things: First, it’s cooked better since each piece is thinner. Second, it’s easier to handle on the plate than a thick link. Service here is always good. The folks who own Parran’s take care of you. They only have Tabasco on the tables, however. While I was initially turned off by their consistency, this plate of beans won me over because of the amount of meat included. The cornbread was a nice touch as well. I’ll have to get back after this quest is over and try their hot sausage to see if the lunch is as good with that.
New Orleans, LA