I took a Kansas City food writer to a classic NOLA restaurant. I had some explaining to do.

We were talking barbecue, and then the dish arrived that short-circuited the conversation, as only the landing at the table of a New Orleans classic can.

Barbecue was part of the name, but this dish has nothing to do with the smoker, the grill nor even a bottle of barbecue sauce.

It was the BBQ shrimp, that marvelous misnomer of New Orleans menus, as served at Liuzza’s by the Track. This dish took a little more explanation than normal because I was dining with David Hudnall, a reporter from Kansas City, where actual barbecue is treated as high art.

We ordered the BBQ shrimp po-boy, which then found me explaining how this wasn’t really a po-boy.

The bread is not sliced, you see, but instead hollowed out. It’s like an airy, crisp-crusted cradle for all the butter-sluiced shrimp. No one asks if you want it dressed, and you eat it with a fork and knife. We can get snippy when people outside New Orleans mess with the po-boy tradition, but then again we sometimes call things po-boys when they manifestly are not, and it’s OK when we do it because we get it.

So, BBQ shrimp that isn’t really barbecue in a po-boy that isn’t really a po-boy. Got all that straight?

But it was a highlight of a meal convened in the spirit of exchange of ideas, perspective and professional camaraderie. Hosting the Super Bowl means hosting media from around the world, including from the markets of the competing teams. I was doing my bit.

Working the beat, and the tables

Back home, Hudnall covers restaurants for the Kansas City Star. All week (and then some) he’s in New Orleans covering the fan experience and Kansas City connections in the host city.

That coverage has naturally brought him through local restaurants, including stories on the Kansas City roots of Gary Wollerman, co-founder of the pioneering upscale seafood restaurant GW Fins (his initials are in the restaurant’s name), and Steve Mock, pitmaster and founder of Smoked, the barbecue spot in Harahan.

New Orleans has been prepping for Super Bowl visitors with varying degrees of urgency since the location for Super Bowl LIX was first announced. The pace lately might be comparable to the scene at a frat house just ahead of parents’ weekend, with everything unfinished getting shoved under the bed.

I’m eager to make a good impression myself; I’m proud of our city. So when Hudnall contacted me to propose a meet-up, I knew Liuzza’s by the Track would do the trick.

This is basically a tavern with a collection of neighborhood characters and a menu all about local flavor done one better with a distinctive house style.

With a schooner of beer, gumbo with a fresh pop to the seafood and a garlic oyster po-boy in hand, everyday New Orleans life can feel grand. That’s what we ordered because that’s the experience I wanted to share…plus the story of our misnomer BBQ shrimp with a guy from a real barbecue town.

We followed dinner with a visit to nearby Pal’s Lounge, where we agreed to move the conversation off-the-record.

But I can disclose that it wasn’t all about food. We talked of deadlines and a changing media landscape, of fan culture, and of what the Super Bowl crowds will find in New Orleans this week.

This is the Chiefs’ third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, a fact that is particularly astonishing to beleaguered Saints fans. And yet the fans are still fired up to travel for this one; Hudnall thinks perhaps New Orleans as a bucket list destination adds new spark to the trek.

Later, reading Hudnall’s own story about the dinner, I was immensely gratified to learn that Liuzza’s garlic oyster po-boy was “probably now in the top-five sandwiches I’ve ever had in my life.”

On the campaign of hospitality around this Super Bowl, I’ll take that as a win.