As far as what to pack, the average high in November in New Orleans is in the low 70's, really ideal weather. However, the actual weather can be a bit see-saw depending on wind direction, cold fronts, etc... If it's early in the month, I'd pack for warm days and cool nights. If it's later in the month, I'd pack for both warm weather and cold weather and bring an umbrella as well.

Just getting back to this thread.

BigRuss, I can to an extent understand your thinking by saying:

"I don't eat the po-boys. Po-boys are just hero sandwiches. I eat the jambalaya. Works for me."

Agreed that jambalaya is indeed a good thing to eat in NOLA (got an especially good appetizer-sized taste of it at Coop's over on Decatur St.). Didn't try the jambalaya at Mother's, so I can't comment on how theirs is.

But I will make a plea in favor of NOLA's po-boys in general, though. There are two main differences between these and hero sandwiches elsewhere:

-NOLA po-boys use french baguette style bread, which I haven't encountered before. It's lighter and fluffier than the sub sandwich rolls I've tried in other cities, and provides a surprisingly light feel to this item.

-most hero/sub/grinder shops put a limited number of items between the bread. Besides veggies and condiments (usually lettuce, tomato, pickles, hot peppers, mayo, or mustard) one often finds the following "mains:" cold cuts, cheeses, sausage, meatballs, pastrami, a few types of "salad" (tuna, chicken, or "seafood," the last usually being processed crab), eggplant or chicken or veal Parmesan, hamburg, egg, or steak that approximates to varying degrees Philly-style cheesesteak meat. There's also the Italian beef sandwich in Chicago, which seems unique to that area in my experience. But the list of things one can get at a NOLA po-boy shop is usually larger. Johnny's alone offers the following types of po-boy which I'd never seen outside of NOLA for this kind of sandwich (this according to their website): alligator, BBQ beef, calamari, catfish, grilled or fried chicken breast, chicken tenders, country fried steak, crab cake, crawfish, french fry, hot dog with chili, hot roast beef (not the same as Chicago Italian beef), oyster, pork chop, shrimp, and soft-shell crab. And Mother's puts shredded cabbage as a veggie on their po-boys, which is also unusual in my experience.

In short, I'd say the NOLA po-boy is a decidedly local spin on a familiar sandwich and not "just a hero sandwich" as I've experienced in other parts of the US.