Muffaletta (New Orleans Olive and Meat Sandwich)

When traveling with friends and family, experience has taught me to have the group sign off on a “book of rules” before making travel arrangements. We must agree that no offense be taken for those of us who want to “do our own thing”.

My “own thing” often involves myopic food quests which may be annoying to fellow travel companions. My last trip to New Orleans involved such an adventure.

I was told by locals that the Central Grocery’s muffaletta was the best muffaletta in New Orleans. I organized an entire vacation day to insure I was in that district of town at the lunch hour.

I arrived around 1:15 only to find they were sold out. I could have purchased a muffaletta sandwich at dozens of other area locations, but I was certain this particular muffaletta was the Holy Grail.

To my family’s irritation, the next day I skipped plans to visit the New Orlean’s aquarium with them to insure I’d get the coveted sandwich. I purchased the sandwich and it was enormous and delicious. Problem was, it wasn’t the transcendental experience I had anticipated–no doubt because I had to eat it alone.

The olive spread is what makes the sandwich special, but the round, seeded Italian bread is an important piece of the pie. I couldn’t find anything like the bread that Central Grocery used in Ann Arbor, but I did find a large Italian round freshly baked bread that was delicious .