No Longer a Crawfish Virgin!

I'm going to deviate a little bit here. I realized that it was probably not the best timing to start a cooking blog when I was in transit. Since the last few days before moving out of Philadelphia, I have been eating some pretty amazing food. Here's a mental list of the places I've eaten:

Earth Bread and Brewery, Philadelphia PA: flatbreads
Keswick Tavern or KT 19038, Keswick PA: a bleu burger with spicy Creole sauce
Manayunk Brewery, Philadelphia PA: an eight-brew sampler, pumpkin ravioli and Philly Cheesesteak pizza, with a chocolate chip cookie in a skillet for dessert
Portofino's (Greek and) Italian Restaurant, East Ridge near Chattanooga TN: a gyro and raspberry lemon cheesecake
Cafe Du Monde, naturally, Vieux Carre, New Orleans LA: beignets and coffee

Fatoush mediterranean restaurant, New Orleans LA: tuna burger with roasted potatoes

Fisherman's Cove and Harbor Seafood Restaurant, Kenner LA: FROG LEGS (If you're wondering, they're bony and the meat is like fish, so it's like having fish on chicken wing bones - it's tasty stuff once you get past the work of taking off the meat. The restaurant had amazing tartar sauce that really added a nice flavor to the meat.)

I have had so much fun eating crazy things lately. I'm trying to get a little outside of my comfort zone. Tonight, I lost my crayfish (although crawfish is how I've always seen it - SpellCheck says it's crayfish) virginity at Joe's House of Blues on Seventh and Dryades, right on the corner of the street where I'm living. Earlier this afternoon after I survived a tornado warning and six inches of water underneath my rental car (yep! welcome to New Orleans!)

I wandered down the street and caught an amazing scent. It turned out to be a HUGE metal pot out front of this little bar. I got talking to a woman inside about the weather on the TV and met the owner. He said that they'd be having a seafood boil, like they do every Wednesday, later in the afternoon. I told them I'd come back and boy am I glad I did.

I met my potential roommate in the city and looked at some places before I started to get hungry. She decided to go get food wandering the French Quarter, a mere blocks from her hotel, and I decided I'd wander back to my local bar. For $3.25, the cost of a Corona with lime, I got a Styrofoam container with:

- about a dozen boiled crawfish
- a half a boiled potato
- one boiled chicken wing
- a piece of boiled corn on the cob

It was GOOD. Last night I watched a family of four eat about, I'd guess, four pounds of boiled crawfish. I watched the son, the closest to where I was sitting, pulling on the tails and sucking on the heads but had no real idea how to do it myself. So when I got my container and opened it up, I mentioned to the guy sitting at the bar next to me that I'd never eaten them before. He asked me if I wanted a tutorial. No, he was not young and cute, but he's from Connecticut originally so it was nice to chat with him. He showed me how to crack the shell and pull on the tails to get out the most meat and after a couple I'd pretty much gotten it down. The meat was so yummy but spicy! My lips were burning. Thank goodness for the beer, which significantly helped with the heat. (Also - there's a sweet cat on my bed right now and it makes me happy; his name is Billy)

The food was so yummy and the Corona went so well with it that I ate it pretty quickly. I feel quite a little buzz from the beer and am so happy to have found cheap, delicious, LOCAL food. Much better than the French Quarter. I think I'm getting the hang of this New Orleans thing already.

Munching through life,
Abby