Crawdads n Crawfish

Call them crawdads, crawfish, crayfish, mudbugs or little lobsters, these essential ingredients for Cajun and Creole cuisine have been eluding me here. I saw some in a night market, but was informed by the person I was with that they were being sold there for three times the usual rate. When asked where to get them, she said she didn’t know.

I’m dying to make some crawfish etouffee. Anyone know where I can find these scrumptious critters?

“crawdads”? Now that is a word I have not heard in some time. Just git yerself one of those fancy flashlights and a slow moving stream and you are in the money. You also need a pair of fast, yet steady, pair of hands.

Wow, things that I didn’t remember doing as a kid come running right up to me and slapping me in the face.

There’s some living in a stream near my house. I wouldn’t want to eat them though.
I used to buy baby ones to feed my turtles and the ones that survived would grow very fast. I often thought about getting another tank and raising some for eating but never got around to it.

I don’t think I want to fish them out of streams…ugh. Does anyone know of any stores or markets that sell them?

As I said, when I had turtles I used to buy little shrimp to feed them. Sometimes they were shrimp, other times they were crawfish (they look pretty much the same when they’re tiny). I used to buy them at the aquarium shop.

Next thing you know, you’ll be eating chicken feet!

And enjoying it! :laughing:

Back around 1989 or so, the late Irv Shinn (of the old Montana Pub) actually imported a whole mess of crawdads from Louisiana. Jambalaya! Man, that was some [i]good[/i] eating!

Didn’t realize there is a local industry. These are Australian crawfish.

4 Likes

How much are they per kilo or Taiwan catty?

Does Taiwan have them? I was surprised that it’s very popular in parts of China. I took my professor to an all you can eat crawfish buffet and got an A there. The way Business is done in China so it makes sense as part of educational learning.

1 Like

This place produces 2000 catty/2600 pounds/1200 kilo per year.

Australian Red Claw.

Seems mostly export to China. Maybe high demand and good profit.

Taiwanese don’t like the flavor of Louisiana crawfish?

“have gone out of favor with local farmers, who have dumped the creatures because their meat is unappealing”.

I used to have crawfish boils every year. Would buy 3 sacks at a time. approximately 100 lbs. Too bad they don’t sell them here in bulk and I don’t have the cookware to do cook them even if they did. :frowning:

2 Likes

Damn. I’d have happily taken them off their hands!

Why would the not want people fishing/catching an invasive species? They should be paying people to remove them from the ecosystem.

1 Like

Then people will breed them for money.

Until they fall out of favour then just release th… Shit we have a problem!

So breeders threw them out because they were so worthless, and now other breeders will catch them because they’re so valuable? I didn’t realize the Asian crawdad market is so volatile.

Here’s something fun for anyone curious about the three different words for the same creature in the same country.image