Okay. So you only eat the tail meat. I agree that if my mission were to find decent crayfish, it would not be at a place that serves a fortune cookie chaser. But their clams are good. And as long they're there... Besides, I bet most Cajun restaurants outside of Louisiana have Mexicans working in the kitchen.
I buy the peeled tails for making etouffee, gumbo, etc. They are available in the grocery stores during crawfish season. I haven't bought live crawfish in years because boiling them is a big production. My son occasionally has a boil, though.
It's been years since I've done (or been to) a crab feast. The price went through the roof starting in the 1980s. I coulda been a millionaire from all the tens upon tens of dozens I caught as a kid. I bet you got good sources for andouille around there. too.
This is the Pappadeaux's crawfish platter... fried crawfish, cajun dirty rice, crawfish etouffee. No head-sucking required; just a cold tap brew.
Yes, there are plenty of cajun restaurants in Houston and plenty of cajun foods/spices in the stores. Speaking of crab, my favorite is stone crab. My brother would not touch crab; he called them "bottom feeders" just like catfish.
This is one of the few downsides to living in my rural area. There's a lack of decent eateries, and the few ethnic ones there are kinda suck. The only Cajun & Creole restaurant listed for Charlottesville has no crawdads, but they got boiled peanuts, Virginia ham biscuits, and Carolina bbq sliders. Maybe the servers wear Justin Wilson masks. The list from Richmond has a Popeyes location in second place.
That's what I think about crawdads, but for some reason I have no issue eating blue claw crabs or shrimp. I've caught (and eaten) catfish, but that's been out of the Shenandoah River, not a stagnant pond. Reminds me of a guy I worked for who told people he was allergic to shrimp when in reality he just did not like shrimp, because he got tired of the "...but you've not tried it this way" push-back.
Most crawfish in this region are "farmed," not that it makes any difference. I have no problem with any of the bottom feeders. Crawfish are similar to shrimp in taste and texture.
Good grief, the HEAT is unrelenting. Looks like we have a 30% chance of some scattered showers on Thursday so maybe that will cool things down. Yesterday we pulled up all the scraggly tomato plants and most of the cucumber vines. Today I'm adding a bunch of compost to those beds and letting them rest up for fall. There are a few cukes left on one vine and after I pick those, the rest of the vines will be yanked. The things in the wooden tall planter bed didn't do squat; I guess those things were planted too late when it was already getting hot outside. They are all stunted in the 100°+ heat so I'll be plucking them out, too. I had mixed emotions about pulling up the garden plants since I enjoyed the small garden and really got a ton of stuff from it. Next spring I will be more prudent with planning/planting; I want to add some squash to the mix and not so many tomatoes. Also, I didn't pay attention to the "indeterminate" varieties that grew much too big for my small space. I'm getting ready to start all my Aerogardens up again; I have learned a lot about growing in those things, too. I've ordered some dwarf varieties of seeds that people are reporting good results from and I'm anxious to get them started.
"Harvested" two bell peppers this morning and a few jalapenos, then I pulled up the pepper plants in one raised bed. They were looking scraggly and some kind of bugs are eating the leaves, so buh-bye. So now the outside garden is reduced to those two Bush Goliath tomato plants and some random chives. It's kind of a relief to be done with that for a while. It's looking overcast and I'm hoping for some rain. The storms on Wednesday night passed us by after making a lot of noise with thunder and wind, but no rain. Our lawn is starting to look distressed so I guess we'll have to drag out the sprinklers soon. I've been working on the dining room to get ready for the new Aerogarden setup. Another bamboo shelf/rack thing is coming today and another Aerogarden Bounty model. I'm going to copy a guy from the AG forum and build a DIY version of the "Farm" model so we'll see how this goes. This will allow me to grow taller "stuff" with the AG. I took down the drapes in there and then had to spackle some holes in the sheetrock (obviously I installed those tie-backs myself. ) It really opened up that room to take those things down. My husband and his siblings had a family meeting to discuss MIL's situation after she took a fall recently. I think it's time for her to be moved to assisted living but I keep my opinions to myself. She has always been adamant that she wants to remain in her own home so they are trying to let that happen; she is 87 and in poor health. Most concerning is her advancing dementia. So there is a new schedule for her home health provider, Visiting Angels. There used to be two, 2-hour visits a day to make sure MIL took her medicines, had a meal prepared, and generally just checking on her twice daily. Now someone will be with her 12 hours a day, from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. when she is supposed to go to bed. Of course she is a night-owl and is usually up until 2 a.m., so we'll see how this goes. I talked to my son last night and he said that my little granddaughter wants to come and stay with us for a few days this summer. I'm so excited!! We are working on the timing since she has horse riding lessons and other stuff going on. Apparently kids nowadays have to "pencil you in."
Believe it or not, I have seen people do just that but usually in metal cans. Oreos and chocolate chip cookies as well...to get you through the tough times ahead.
Not much going on around here. I'm so glad for the break in the heat wave and enjoying a rainy day for a change. I've been putzing with Aerogardens all morning; I got some new "fajita peppers" seed pods and also sweet banana peppers. The fajita peppers look like smaller bell peppers but are supposed to have a "bite," so we'll see. I have two Iznik cucumber seedlings in the AG Bounty (with the trellis) so I'm anxious to see how this will go. I have watched several youtube videos on methods of dealing with cucumber vines indoors so this will be interesting. (I know you're thinking that it's not really interesting...haha.) I watched a series on Netflix called "Firefly Lane" this week, mostly for background noise. I had read the book a couple of years ago so I wanted to see how the series compares. Spoiler: One of the main characters gets Inflammatory breast cancer and went through the same treatment as me. Then hers returned in her bones and liver, then she died. Ugh. Now cancer is dragged back into my consciousness. If I can make it to the 5-year mark, my odds of a recurrence go way down. I'm at 2.5 years now... hard to believe, though.
We all wish the best for you @Beth Gallagher , and for all those who suffer from cancer or have lost loved ones to it.