Welcome to the Gourmet Survivor Competition, a foodblog-community fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This effort is the brain-child of Adam over at the Amateur Gourmet, and the rules and developments can be found at his site. All you really need to know is that there are four competitors each battling for your votes (and charity dollars) by blogging their experiments with New Orleans cuisine. Here at Frost Street, we're supporting Kathy Mayers, a saucy SoCal gourmande (just look at the photo scavenger hunt she completed to qualify for the competition). Kathy has some serious chops in the kitchen, so make sure she stays in the competition by voting for her at the Gourmet Survivor donations page. A five dollar donation buys you one vote, but there's no limit to the number of votes you can cast, so vote early, vote often, and be sure to put Kathy's name in the comments section of your donation.

Now, on to why you should vote for Kathy: Check out the wicked po' boy she put together for the first round of the competition. If you want to see more spectacular kitchen adventures like these, be sure to keep Kathy in the running by giving generously:

Kathy's Po' Boy Entry:

Reading about the first challenge, my first reaction was, "but I've never eaten a po' boy before!" How on earth could I possibly do justice to something I had never even tried? Armed with only the most hazy idea of what a po' boy might consist of (something about seafood and a long roll…maybe?) I went in search of more information. I thumbed through cookbooks, searched the web and asked anyone I could think of 1) if they had ever had one and 2) what made it really good. Then the planning began.

I wanted to make something close to whatever a "classic" po' boy might be, if only so I could try one for myself for the first time. I decided to go with fried shrimp as the filling and a remoulade sauce as accompaniment. But the bread was just as important. How to find something light with just the right crunchy exterior?

Bernard Clayton's "New Complete Book of Breads" to the rescue. I flipped right past all the classic French bread recipes and settled on "Blue Ribbon French Bread", a loaf enriched with small amounts of nonfat milk, butter and sugar. This would hopefully give the right texture and flavor to complement the shrimp and other fillings. The dough was a little sticky but pretty easy to work with.

They came out just as I had imagined – light, chewy, with just a bit of crunch in the crust. Now, on to the remoulade. But first I needed a good mayonnaise.

Note: this was my first attempt at mayonnaise, outside of opening a jar of Best Foods. I can't even think of a good reason why I haven't made any in the past, other than I've never been a big mayo fan and didn't see the point. But this sandwich deserved the best, and that was not going to come out of any jar.

Now I understand why people love mayonnaise. Truly glorious stuff that I wanted to dollop or smear or just, well, taste over and over to properly ensure quality. I'm all about quality control. I almost hated to add everything else so this lovely sauce could become a proper remoulade. In went the celery, green onion, garlic, mustard, parsley, ketchup, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce (Crystal, my favorite!), and salt. I had to try a little right then and it took all the self control I have not to polish off the whole bowl with a spoon then and there. Off it went to sit in the refrigerator so all those flavors could marry properly. But first, a close up:

Finally, it was time to prepare the shrimp. I mixed them with some mustard thinned with a little bit of milk, then drained them. Off they went into a bag filled with flour, cornmeal, salt, cayenne, and garlic powder, then off into the fryer for a quick dip to crisp up. At the same time I cooked up some Nimon Ranch applewood smoked bacon, This was a complete departure from anything remotely classic, but I thought the smokiness of the bacon would pair well with the sweetness of the shrimp. Once both were drained it was time for a test. I dipped one of the shrimp in a bit of remoulade and took a bite. Completely delicious. Then I tried a bite with a bit of bacon added. Even more delicious. The bacon played a perfect base note to the sweet, tender saltiness of the shrimp. Call me a heretic, but bacon would be in my po' boy sandwich.

I toasted the roll just enough to add another layer of crispness. On top of that, I slathered remoulade sauce with abandon. On top of this came butter lettuce and tomatoes fresh out of my neighbor's yard. Shrimp just out of the hot oil, still tender inside, were placed reverently on top. Then the bacon, tucked carefully between the plump, crispy shrimp. Last came the top slice, also covered in that wonderful remoulade.

As I bit down, all I could think was, "why haven't I ever eaten a po' boy before?" And more importantly, "how soon can I eat one again?"

What did I tell you? Look at that po' boy! How could you not want to see more New Orleans delicacies like this? Well, it's all in your hands: go straight to the Gourmet Survivor donations page and vote for Kathy. Remember: Five dollars per vote, vote early and often, and don't forget to put Kathy's name in the comments for your donation.