New Orleans: A Street Food Paradise
Take a stroll through New Orleans on any given day and you’re bound to easily find delicious street food in one of our corner stores, at a second line or a festival, or even at a food pop-up. This city runs on the underlying belief that tasty food should be found everywhere: from our white tablecloth restaurants to the corner stores in each neighborhood, which is what makes New Orleans my favorite destination for food! We take it to the streets in the best ways with our music, parades, and even our eats.
Most of our favorite foods in this city — think gumbo, yakamein, beignets, fried chicken, red beans & rice, crawfish, jambalaya, and poboys — originated from our Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, including immigrants and the working class. In this brief, I’ll talk through two of our favorite street foods with these connections: poboys and yakamein.
Poboys: More Than Just a Sandwich
Let’s start with the beloved poboy — one of our favorite corner store & festival bites. At our annual Poboy Fest, you can find poboys on every street corner of Oak Street including: lobster, shrimp, roast beef and even vegan varieties. These famous sandwiches have a fascinating history and are tied deeply to the culture of Black New Orleanians, who make up over 60% of our population.
The knowledge and labor that enslaved Africans and Black people brought (read: forced to bring due to enslavement) to New Orleans is what created the foundations of our city's culture and foodways. In fact, the first poboy loaves were baked by Black New Orleanians in an Italian immigrant-owned bakery who supplied bread to Cajun restauranteurs in The Quarter.
Local food historians say that the official poboys came about during the streetcar strike of 1929 when several Black and immigrant streetcar conductors went on strike for unfair contract negotiations. Remember when I said that most of our favorite foods in this city originated from our Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, including immigrants and the working class? That story is just one example!
Yakamein: New Orleans’ Best-Kept Soup Secret
Let’s take a bite of another piece of our street food history: yakamein! Now, you know New Orleans and gumbo go together like red beans and rice, but have you heard about our other favorite soup?! That’s where yakamein comes in!
Yakamein consists of a savory, salty broth, noodles, a boiled egg, seasoned beef & shrimp, and green onions. It’s affectionately known as “Ol’ Sober” and this soup can get you through the day after you’ve spent too much time indulging on our streets!
Where Does Yakamein Come From?
Ok, so you may be asking, where does yakamein come from?
The origins of this New Orleans street food, popular at festivals and second lines, has several theories attached to it. One big question is always, “Where did the Asian influence of the dish come from?!” Three theories prevail:
- Veterans of World War II or the Korean conflict returned to NOLA craving a savory noodle dish and whipped something up with local ingredients.
- Chinese immigrants who came to Louisiana in the nineteenth century to work on sugar plantations and, later, railroads passed on a taste for noodle soup to their Black co-laborers.
- The dish emerged from New Orleans’ Chinatown (yup, we had one). Chinatown was right next to Storyville where mostly Black musicians played late nights and were always looking for quick, inexpensive bites — hence that could be where the yakamein cultural mash-up began!
One thing is for sure: the dish was popularized by our Black communities and Ms. Linda Green is the reigning queen of yakamein. So if you’re down to try this street food, go find The Yakamein Lady — aka Ms. Linda Green.
Meet the Author
Dr. Nicole Caridad Ralston (@EatenPathNola) is JAMNOLA’s official Food Ambassador, spotlighting the culture, people, and hidden gems of New Orleans through its food. Catch her monthly guest blogs right here, or follow her delicious journey on: