Belated blog #2 - The Crawfish Festival

Our other cool thing that we did in May was the Crawfish Festival, a fundraising event to raise money for the ongoing rebuilding effort in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Crawfish boils are evidently a HUGE thing down south. Lou and I had never had crawfish before, so we decided to check it out. It was really cool, because there was live New Orleans-esque music the whole time, a guy making animal shaped balloons for kids, and other food like Dinosaur BBQ for those wary of seafood.

They don't shell the crawfish for you - they boil them right as they are. And for those of you who don't know, here is what a crawfish looks like (well, a cooked one, anyway...) - kind of like a tiny lobster. That is Maria's hand holding it, by the way. I didn't really want to touch them...

And here was the platter we got - a whole bunch of crawfish, salt potatoes, and a small corn on the cob.

Our friends Scott and Cortnie went with us. They are real southerners, so it was good to have them along to let us know how authentic the food really was.

Maria loved picking them up over and over and playing with their tiny claws. Go her, because I was too creeped out to do it. I just have a thing against my food LOOKING like the thing it came from. I want it to look like food, not like the creature itself.

Here she is modeling the little sucker right up next to her face...

...and showing how tiny it is next to her. She thought they were so cool.

All in all, despite the fact that I made Lou shell them for us (I know, I'm a wimp), they really were tasty - very similar to shrimp in flavor and texture.

Josephine was talking about trying a crawfish nonstop for 2 days before the festival. She just kept saying over and over "I'm going to EAT one!". She was so excited, and then she saw them...

...and decided to stick with corn on the cob instead. She wouldn't even try one. Too much like me, I guess. :) I ended up going to get her a hot dog from the Haufmann's stand, and you should have seen the relief on her face when I brought it back for her. "Hooray - normal-looking food!"

It was a fun time, though. We got to try some new food, hang out with friends, listen to good music and take a stroll around the harbor afterwards. That's one of the things I love about central New York - all the festivals that are held almost year-round!