Crawfish (or crawdads) look like small lobsters and can be very intimidating to a newbie. Although I love seafood and can throw back shellfish with the best of them, the idea of eating crawfish freaked me out. Their eyes, tails, and antennas are all intact so handling the "mud bugs" can make a person squeamish.
The festival featured over 5,000 lbs of crawfish that were shipped in from Louisiana, along with other Southern foods like Alligator!! $16 bought you a meal which included 2.5 lbs of crawfish, which I found to be expensive, but after thinking about the time it took to ship, cook, and serve the critters I felt the price was justified.
Crawfish remains - - they looked hideous but were SO good... and yes, you MUST suck the head! |
A lovely gentlemen at our table demonstrated how to eat the crawfish and by the end of the day I felt like a pro. This is definitely a messy food and best enjoyed outside wearing clothes that can handle a few splashes. It took me a few tries to perfect the art of squeezing the head and sucking the juices... I had a few gnarly splashes all over the place lol... but it was a lot of fun.
If you live in the Columbia area definitely put this on your list for next year.