Crawfish Boil

I had never been to a crawfish boil, or even knew what one was, until moving to Austin. They are a huge tradition in Louisiana and lately that tradition has carried over to the Austin-area. David, true to his Louisiana roots, LOVES crawfish boils.

For the past few years, our young adults group at church has held a “Cinco de Bayou” festival to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Instead of fajitas and margaritas, we celebrate with Crawfish Olympics! The lucky winner doesn’t get eaten – yay! And last year Volusion held a crawfish boil on Lake Austin in lieu of a traditional company picnic.

This year, we were not able to make it to Cinco de Bayou and Volusion did have a traditional company picnic with burgers and hot dogs. But don’t worry! Brad and Jen Watson, our neighbors and good friends from church, held their 1st Annual Watson Crawfish Boil a couple of weeks ago. I cannot stand crawfish. I think they are disgusting creatures. David, however, loves crawfish so much that he will even suck the juice out of their heads to finish them off. Personally, I think it’s a lot of work for a tiny bit of meat. And the thought of having to “purge” the things before cooking them makes me a little ill. Note: Purging a crawfish requires filling a tub/baby pool with water and crawfish to keep them alive and happy until dinner. Then the tub/pool is filled with salt to make the crawfish sick enough to throw up. This prevents the crawfish consumers from having to deal with any nastiness while peeling them apart. All I can say is “Gross.”

Salt-free baby pool of crawfish

Getting back to the party! When we first arrived, I asked David to put on the crawfish cap as a joke so I could take a funny picture. Little did I know 7 hours later David would still be wearing that hat!

David and Allison Gristy playing with their food

After consuming almost 2 baby pools of crawfish, most of the guests left and then the boys started dancing! If you have not witnessed Michael Eichenberger, Jordan Gristy, and David House dancing together, you haven’t lived! Their crazy moves can entertain the masses for HOURS! After about an hour of dancing, the wives decided it was time to get their men home.

Even though I don’t eat crawfish, both David and I are going to miss this Southern tradition. Maybe we’ll try to start crawfish boils in the UK! If it doesn’t catch on, we’ll mail you the crawfish cap for next year’s party, Watsons!