So you’ve decided to head out to the Texas Crawfish Festival (hopefully you were inspired by MyHoustonLife’s coverage) and you are determined to consume your fair share of the 70 tons of crawfish being cooked there. But 70 tons of crawfish is a lot of crawfish! And they are being prepared by dozens of different vendors who each put their own special twist on how to cook up these delicious little critters. Everyone has their own boil seasoning recipe and everyone claims to know exactly how much should go in the boil. Others claim a steamed and then season-soaked crawfish is the tastiest. And then there are the few who believe the best batch of crawfish requires an additional dusting of boil seasoning before they are ready to eat.
So how are you suppose to know which vendors are producing the best tasting crawfish? At 13 bucks (give or take a few dollars) for 3lbs of crawfish at each vendor, you could try every offering available at the festival, but your tab is going to add up quick and the ATM lines are long, real long. Luckily for you, MHL has already been out to the Crawfish Festival and needless to say, we’ve been there, eaten that.
Read on after the break to see us break down our culinary conquest of the Crawfish Festival.
Drouin’s Crazy Cajun
If anything, you should definately check out Drouin’s Crazy Cajun’s crawfish simply because it will be the greatest contrast in texture and taste you will find throughout the festival when it comes to crawfish. This is because Drouin’s doesn’t boil their crawfish like most vendors, they steam their crawdads. And once they are steamed to perfection, the whole batch gets dropped into a tasty broth of boil seasoning to soak.
This method of cooking crawfish may go against the grain but it produces plump, albeit less juicy, tails. Believe me, you will immediately notice the lack of juice each time you crack open a Drouin’s crawfish. The flavor of the seasoned boil is soaked directly into the meat of the crawfish leaving the meat very flavorful, but in many cases, a bit too salty. You will however, find your fingers much cleaner after tearing through this batch of crawfish than a batch from any other vendor –mostly due to the lack of juices and the fact that they don’t dust extra seasoning onto their crawfish after they’re cooked. So if you’re looking to stay clean (who is at a crawfish festival?) and you have plenty of beverages to quench your thirst after all the saltiness, Drouin’s is your crawdad cooker.
Verdict: Three Napkins. Definately try it but move on, there are better.
The Loose Caboose
The Loose Caboose serves up some good crawfish and it is apparent by the number of people who file in front of The Loose Caboose’s stand waiting to get their hands on some. Its wide variety of non-mudbug foods also adds to the Loose Caboose’s appeal. Good luck finding a spot to enjoy your spread though. Despite the generous amount of seating near this place, its popularity makes it hard to find a place to set down your caboose (sorry, bad pun quota filled!).
Now back to the question at hand. If the Loose Caboose is so popular, their crawfish must be the best at the festival right? Well, they are tasty that’s for sure. The crawfish is prepared in the traditional sense –boiled in a broth heavy with boil seasoning, and since their crawfish is in high demand, there is a high rate of turn-over meaning you will likely get a fresh batch. The quality of their crawfish however, is a bit lacking. On average, the size of their crawfish are very much on the smaller side, leaving you in need of more crawfish (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
Verdict: Four Napkins. I wouldn’t blame you for sticking around here for a while, the taste makes up for the smaller-sized crawfish.
Crawdads
So I had heard good things about this vendor located at the end of one of the festival’s side streets. I was more excited when I saw the size of their crawfish as we prepared to indulge ourselves again, these things were huge! Their crawfish actually looked like miniature lobsters. Imagine my dismay however, when I cracked open my first mudbug from the batch and sucked up a bunch of largely flavorless juice! Someone must’ve left out the boil seasoning because these critters tasted like they were boiled in plain ‘ol water! Honestly, the tastiest part of this order was the corn, it was the sweetest corn at the festival. Oh and their crawfish caddies (trays that hang around your neck and allow you to eat crawfish as you walk… genious!) are pretty cool.
Verdict: One Napkin. Blah. Save your money, skip this place.
No-name Crawfish Shack
Do not underestimate this little, no-name shack near the entrance of the festival. It may look unimpressive and a little mundane in appearance but make no mistake, the people who run this stand boil up a mean batch of crawfish! You don’t have to search far into the festival grounds to find the place with the best combination of crawfish quality and taste.
There aren’t many undersized mudbugs in your batch from this spot, these guys serve up on average the largest sized crawfish, meaning nice plump tails and juicy heads to suck on. The seasoning is done right here as well, with each crawfish soaked to a just-right, not overpowering spice (although I suspect that they dust additional seasoning on the crawfish after they are cooked which, depending on your personal taste is either a pro or a con). Even the usually overlooked piece of corn and red potatoes were done remarkably well here. The corn is obviously boiled separate from the crawfish allowing it to retain its sweetness with only a tinge of heat and the red potatoes are perfect bite-sized portions.
Verdict: Five Napkins. Eat here. We tried the rest. This was the best.
So there you have it crawfish lovers! Granted we only visited four of the several vendors available at the festival and yes, it is possible that the batch that we sampled from at these places could be an aberration and not representative of the type of product that they usually produce, but we can only go by what we were given upon purchase. All things aside though, if you head out to the Crawfish Festival, you are more-times-than-not going to get your hands on some very tasty crawfish! Now go forth and suck!
We want to hear from you! Have you gone out to the Crawfish Festival yet? Which vendor made your favorite batch of crawfish? Let us know!
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