Back on the bayou

The day before I left, a couple of friends and colleagues accompanied me to Houma to see something of Louisiana other than just New Orleans. I'm so lucky to have a family that enjoys introducing "outsiders" to our way of living. My dad and brother boiled over 100 pounds of crawfish, crabs and shrimp for Nanna and April to sample! They were both great sports and dug right in. Peelings flying and juice dripping down your arms to the elbows- now that's eatin!

Along with eating boiled seafood, April and Nanna got to see a couple of gators in our back bayou. They didn't understand why I took them in a truck and on a four-wheeler instead of walking until April encountered a big fat snake on the ride back to the front! I think all was forgiven once they got to experience "visiting" Southern style!

I picked up a magazine titled Louisiana Life at the airport that had a cool article about the history of crawfish. I know, I know, I'm such a foodie geek! I love learning about the origins of different foods and some of the history surrounding them. Anyway, I learned that it wasn't until the mid-20th century before crawfish were elevated from a striclty peasant-food only consumed in times of food scarcity to the icon of Cajun food that it is today. This picture was taken along the front bayou at my parents' house and is of a crawfish hole. Here's an excerpt from the article that explains this interesting architecture:

Crawfish are aquatic crustaceans with gills that allow them to live outside water for exteded periods, so long as their gills remain moist. In order to survive [rising and falling water levels], crawfish burrow into the ground in search of moisture and to escape predators. As crawfish excavate their burrows, they bring balls of mud to the surface and build chimneys to protect and seal their homes. Crawfish mate in open water before entering their burrows to wait out the dry season, but females lay their eggs in the burrows and many are hatched there.

Wow, now I feel really bad about kicking over all those chimneys when I was a kid! I hope you enjoyed this food lesson and the other posts on my Louisiana trip. My next scheduled travel is to Milwaukee in a couple of weeks. I don't think there will be time for much besides work, but I'll try to find something interesting from the trip to post about!!!