On the journey

In one of my earlier posts I had mentioned about my experience with alien food, today I would like to share my familiarity with another one. Unlike the last one, I eventually did enjoy this food item: Crawfish, one of the specialties of Lafayette Louisiana.

Crawfish are freshwater crustacean, resembling like small lobsters. More than 90% of Crawfish supply for United States is harvested alone in Louisiana, thanks to its immense swamps. Eating crawfish in Louisiana is more than just a culinary practice, its part of their culture too. According to Wikipedia, “Louisiana crawfish are usually boiled live in a large pot with heavy seasoning (salt, cayenne pepper, lemon, garlic, bay leaves, etc) and other items such as potatoes, maize, onions, garlic, and sausage. They are generally served at a gathering known as crawfish boil.”

When I first came to Louisiana, my colleagues suggested me to try crawfish. After my rabbit fiasco, I was extra careful where I ate; I only went to the places where I knew the food, like Chinese buffet. But even there, they had crawfish. I had no idea how to eat those, so I skipped them for couple of times. The hype of crawfish was getting bigger on me so I decided to bring the food home instead (so that I don’t look like a fool trying to figure out how to eat it in the restaurant. Anyone ever seen the movie “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” ?). At home, I broke the crawfish in half, threw the tail and peeled the abdomen off and ate (there was nothing to eat, so I sucked the spicy juice). What a waste of crawfish I thought, all this hype was for nothing. That year I tried couple more of crawfish in few occasions in Chinese buffet, and same the next year. However, when I was talking with one of my colleagues this year on how best to eat a crawfish that I realized, all this time I was throwing away what was supposed to be eaten and eating what was supposed to be thrown away. No wonder, crawfish didn’t live up to the hype

The meat within crawfish tail is what people eat, I ate something else. Why didn’t I ask anyone for whole two years? My colleagues laughed their butt off. After knowing the correct eating procedure, I started eating more than just couple of crawfishes. I started dining in ethnic Cajun restaurants that have better crawfish than the Chinese buffet. I finally came to sense with crawfish, but not without a very long hit and trial period

Recently my apartment complex organized a big crawfish boil, as a part of their customers appreciation week. I ate few more pounds of crawfish there too. But more importantly I took few pictures so that you guys will have some idea on crawfish boil.

Live crawfish in sack

Boiler for crawfish

Crawfish carried over to the boiler

Off you go to hot water with spices

Ouch..that’s burning alive

That’s the delicacy

I’ll serve it for ya

A plate of crawfish

That’s yummy

Everyone had fun at the crawfish boil

Check out one of the youtube video that I found on peeling and eating a crawfish.

In a foreign country, one encounters not only foreign culture but entirely unique delicacies too. I bet you guy’s too have fair share of some funny moments like me