Hey Hive!
Even though there are still people getting covid, it's basically being treated like a cold these days so thankfully almost everything is back to normal now! There are no more restrictions on dining these days and you don't even have to wear a mask anymore if you don't want to! It's a huge relief and this allows us to try different food places again!
Hawker centers are very commonplace here in Singapore, and it's where most people would go to eat because they're affordable and offer a wide variety of dishes across different cuisines. We're very lucky that our neighbourhood has a few different hawker centers for us to choose from should I not have the time to cook.
So the other day we went to this one that's slightly further down the road from us that is a little bigger with more seats and stalls. It seemed like a popular place and there were quite a few people eating here. There were also some stalls that were different from the usual neighbourhood hawker centers, like one specialising in Mookata (which is a Thai hotpot with grill along the side) that looked very popular.
There were quite a few stalls to choose from but I wasn't super hungry and saw this stall had some Western version of banh mi that they called a Po' Boy that I was curious about. It'd been a while since I had a sandwich so I decided to try it!
I thought it was a banh mi but I read that a Po' Boy is a sandwich originally from Louisiana, USA. It traditionally consists of meat (usually roast beef), chicken fingers or fried seafood and is served in New Orleans French bread, known for its crisp crust and fluffy center. I guess shrimp is the most common nowadays since Google has so many recipes for shrimp Po' Boy.
Source: simplyrecipes.com
Apparently it started as fried oyster sandwiches on French loaves in the late 19th century and was called poor boy or po' boy in a New Orleans restaurant in Lousiana.
Anyway, the stall itself looked pretty cool too with a wide range of Western dishes from steak to chicken, fish and chips, grilled salmon, pasta and various sides. We ordered the BBQ Peppery Pork Po' Boy since I don't really cook pork at home.
We ordered it to-go and it comes with two sides, so Sean chose fries and onion rings which were pretty tasty and crunchy too! When we got home and opened it up, the sandwich was nicely wrapped in some paper and was freshly hot still.
This was the sandwich when I unwrapped it! The bread was really crispy and the pork cutlet was sandwiched inside. It was bigger than I thought but it also seemed lacking in other ingredients in the sandwich.
It was quite messy after I bit into it so I didn't take any more photos but it was quite nice and had some vegetables buried under the pork cutlet. The bread was nice and crisp on the outside, and fluffy on the inside. The pork was a little tender and thankfully the BBQ sauce wasn't too sweet or sour and actually was quite peppery so I think it was more black pepper than BBQ which I actually prefer anyway.
Sean bought some roast pork and BBQ pork rice so actually we had a lot of pork for this meal but in very different forms. It was also not bad, but nothing fantastic I think.
Since both our meals didn't have much veggies I also air-fried some carrots and broccoli which is really easy to make if you have an air fryer and you're lacking vegetables in your meal.
Overall, it was a pretty delicious meal and I'd say this sandwich is definitely a better and cheaper alternative to a Subway sandwich, with better bread and sides for sure. If I'm ever craving a sandwich I'll buy this again.
Thanks so much for reading!
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