How to Eat Boiled Crawfish

The day after I took the Paris photos, and two days after I took the last Bankgkok photos, I arrived in Houston, Texas, the town where I was born, or my Geburtsort. It was May 26th or so. My good friend, Matthew Walker, and I visited the Magnolia Bar & Grill for a few Texas beers, some excellent boiled crawfish and live zydeco music. Crawfish are also known as crawdads, mudbugs, crayfish, Flusskrebs (German), écrevisses (French) and probably a host of other regional names. Here are some of the photos I took that afternoon:

There's Matt. He's usually pretty laid back, but he gets serious when it comes to crawfish. I can't blame him.

Crawfish massacre. These are crawfish heads - what's left of a crawfish after you eat the meat.

These are uneaten crawfish. Most of the meat is found in the tails, which are still attached in this picture.

That's an authentic Houston, Texas summertime lunch. Crawfish, Shiner Bock, a glass of iced tea and a big bottle of Tabasco. Shiner is a Texas beer. The brewery was founded in 1909 by a group of Germans and Czechs who settled in central Texas. Tabasco is the most famous Cajun pepper sauce. It's made in Louisiana, the home of Cajun food, just to the east of Texas.

Matt's beginning the "How to Eat Crawfish" lesson. First, know your enemy and respect him.

Turn the crawfish on its side. Pinch the tail with one hand, and the head with the other. Squeeze both sides and bend the crawfish until the tail starts to separate from the head.

Squeezing the tail firmly, detach it completely from the head.

Suck the head (this is important!).

Peel the shell away from the tail.

Now you're left with a delicious, tender piece of meat. Eat it!

Another satisfied customer.

Here's one of the zydeco band musicians.

We stayed until after dark. The evening band was pretty good.

The rest of the band.