How to Find Crawdads in Louisiana

Since 1983, the state crustacean of Louisiana has been the crawfish, aka the crawdad or crayfish. With a production of more than 100 million lbs. of the 3- to 6-inch shellfish a year, it'll be easy enough to find a fried or buttered basket on your next trip to the bayou.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Stop by the grocery store to pick up some crawfish. Most seafood counters in New Orleans and outlying areas carry them.

2. Keep your eyes peeled for seafood shacks selling crawdads (along with shrimp and other fish) to go. Douse 'em with some Louisiana Hot Sauce and you're good to go.

3. Visit Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, during the annual crawdad festival, held the first weekend in May. For more details, go to BreauxBridgeLive.com.

4. If you're far from the Mississippi Delta and craving some crustaceans, contact the Louisiana Crawfish Company (lacrawfish.com) to have fresh and frozen crawfish sent to your door by overnight mail. Prepare as you would lobster.

Tips & Warnings

• Buy more crawfish than you think you'll need or want: They don't contain much meat, and some fans can eat dozens before they're full.
• Resembling tiny lobsters, crawfish live in fresh water instead of seawater like their lobster relatives.

on 11/22/2005 No one down here (in Louisiana) eats crawfish with butter, and they certainly aren't prepared like lobster at all. It is far more common (and tasty) to dip boiled crawfish in a sauce of mayonnaise, ketchup, Tabasco sauce, and maybe a bit of horseradish. Furthermore, no one every boils crawfish as you would boil lobster. There's always a spice mix added to the water, along with potatoes, onions, corn, and sometimes sausage or mushrooms. That's where the flavor comes from. No one in Breaux Bridge calls it the crawdad festival. If you say crawdad or crayfish down here, you're likely to come off as a fool. You can't get fresh crawfish just any old time. The season usually runs from late winter through early summer.