A one month hiatus on crabbing in Louisiana was announced recently leading us to ride out to the Shrimp Lot in Westwego to see if we could score some soft shells before the age of darkness fell on New Orleans.

The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) population in our state’s fisheries is at critically low levels. From Feb. 20th through March 21 2017 the crab men and crab ladies will have to pursue another line of work to allow the population to rebound.

Louisiana is the king of domestic crabbing with an average of 43 million pounds being netted annually but those numbers are a far cry from the golden age of the crabbing industry in the 1940s.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries is funding a tri-state research initiative to find out the root cause of the drop in blue crab production in Maryland, Virginia and Louisiana

While blue crabs are cannibalistic it is not thought that intra-species predation is a significant cause in population loss.

As we wheeled into the parking area of the Shrimp Lot we noticed a big sign touting $5 sausage po boys. In spite of the fact that we’d just eaten bacon, egg and cheese po boys at site editor RL Reeves Jr’s home we immediately walked into Market WeGo to take the lay of the land.

Market WeGo is an Acadiana-style meat market and restaurant with a full array of boudin, cracklins, sausages, turtle meat by the pound and dry goods and seasonings along with a short menu of boiled seafood, po boys and Cajun hot pot cooking.

We’re only in it for the po boys, and cheap andouille sausage sandwiches are unheard of outside Louisiana’s German Coast community.

We queue up with a handful of other diners and are shortly addressed by the friendly counter lady who takes our order while another gal begins bustling about in the tiny kitchen.

There is no sliding scale of deliciousness on our 500 po boys project. We gauge a $5 po boy the exact same way we judge a $25 po boy…on its own merits, and Market WeGo makes a fine sandwich. The andouille has been split lengthwise then bricked down on a hot griddle til a good crust forms on the farce. Leidenheimer provides the bread, and a side salad of lettuce, tomato and pickle serves as a sort of build-your-own garnish. Mayo comes in the form of Kraft squeeze packets.

This $5 po boy is a real gem, and every bit as delicious as the $25 soft shell crab po boy we enjoyed at R & O Restaurant in Metairie.

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Market WeGo

100 Westbank Expy

Westwego, LA

70094

Hours of operation

Always call ahead

(504) 436-9966

Read about Spuddy’s Cajun Foods, another andouille po boy we featured for our series.