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The scoop on crawfish

Friday, April 28, 2006

This is the message that was left on my answering machine: “Lorin, I just talked to the folks at Pat’s, and bagged, peeled crawfish tails are $18.99 a pound! Can you believe it? I guess I’ll buy a few bags and put them on the menu in a crawfish risotto.”

225's crawfish picks:

Capital City Grill--Popcorn crawfish salad.

Portobello's--The eggplant stack, fried eggplant stacked and topped with a rich, creamy crawfish sauce.

Mestizo Restaurant--Crawfish enchiladas, legendary and a favorite of a certain Baton Rouge native Whole Foods Market marketing director.

Boutin's--Crawfish wontons, which are crawfish, jalapenos, pepper jack and parmesan cheese, wrapped in a wonton skin.

Juban's--Black and Craw, blackened filet of tilapia with Louisiana crawfish tails, mushrooms, green onions and meuniere sauce.

Gino's--Angel hair pasta with crawfish cream sauce.

Deano's Pizza--Crawfish a la Deano's.

Sammy's Grill--Fried crawfish tail po-boy, dressed, with hot sauce.

Tsunami--John Breaux Roll, sauteed crawfish, avocado and spicy sauce.

Tony's Seafood--Boiled crawfish at their tail-pinching, head-sucking best. Also try the crawfish boudin and crawfish pies.

I sat listening to that message in stunned silence. $18.99 a pound? No way. Yes way. The original expectation was bagged crawfish tails were going to go for $25 per pound or more, so this was perceived in the industry as a deal. The reason for the high prices is a lack of personnel to peel the crawfish, not a lack of crawfish. Although, for a time, there was that concern as well. Sacks of live crawfish have been available, not plentiful, and boiled crawfish in March were selling for $3.69 per pound.

Some seafood purveyors were speculating and passing rumors the wild crawfish out of the Belle River were going to be down because of a “draught.” However, in early April, one fisherman said, “When I first went to check out the situation, there was plenty of water and the mama crawfish were loaded down with their babies. Then the water went down—that’s the draught—and even so, the crawfish kept growing. Now the water’s coming in again at Cairo, so I think in about two weeks we’ll be able to get out there and set traps without having to pole-push our boats. I thinks it’s gonna be a good season. The crop’s there, it’s just about the water….”

But diners can rest easy. The Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival is set for May 5, 6 and 7. And there are plenty of Baton Rouge restaurants serving some great boiled crawfish and crawfish dishes.