Crawfish boil - Louisiana style - 14 photos

There is a regional tradition to crawfish. In southern Louisiana, its more of a poach than a boil, but I'll get to that in a minute.

David. This may be the most decent human being I have ever met.

Crawfishes come in sacks. Prices are posted around town and fluctuate based on the water levels of the bayou. If it hasn't been raining, the boats can't get to the traps. Then if its been a while, when the rain finally happens, the price falls through the floor and the locals boil away.

From each sack one random winner is ceremonially released. Sent to the water trench that is in everyone's yard. Around them parts I think David once said they average about 8 feet of rain annually.

Zatarains. Its a spice pack, its a hot sauce, there is a red powder version. Each chef uses different combinations.

Maxine knows about the selection process. Dead ones are pulled before the thrivers are added to the boiling water. She gets a couple, I guess raw shells are hard on an old dog.

And the fishes are in.

They also have this thing with daiquiris. There are drive throughs that sell four packs in little to go containers. Honestly. The vendor leaves the paper top on the straw because then it is still sealed and legal for transport. Try that in Michigan. ha ha. (don't.)

Its really more of a poach. The potato mix goes in first, the water gets back to boiling, then the crawfish go in, and once the water boils again, the heat is turned off.

The newspaper table cloth, in this case, also features an ad for crawfish boils.

This time, the potatoes were in a few minutes early. There are a lot of variables.

Below are two of the guys who ran the trowels at the skate park. This we figured out around the table, and they figured out then, that we had a contract to photograph the finished product.

The real locals suck the juice from the head of the crawfish. I'm not quite there, myself. In my heart I am clearly an herbivore first, but when in Louisiana, I can even eat a crustacean. (Or whatever is this exoskeletal thing).

They say that when the French were kicked out of eastern Canada, they migrated to the bayou. The lobsters came along, but because it was so far, they ended up getting way small.

For me, I'd choose David's crawfish over any lobster I've had yet. The coriander spice pack really set it up.