Now what better way to spend part of your Memorial Day weekend, than to attend a honest to goodness crawfish boil? Very few things in life top good food, people in a festive mood, and really bad sunburn! First off, nope we’re not LSU (that would be Louisiana State University) Alumni, but managed to snag 2 tickets from a friend who somehow managed to get a whole table. Not an easy task, there are "only" 2500 tickets sold for this yearly event. Tickets aren’t cheap, either, 50 bucks a head…but you’ll see that it’s worth it!
The event was held at the Qualcomm Stadium practice field…which I think is now a rugby field, and is put on by the San Diego LSU Alumni Club.
We arrived just before noon, and the party was already in full swing.
Must be the great music, right?
You’d be partially right, the music was great, and the mood festive, but I think it’s what’s written on
the sign to the right that also motivated those with parrot hats and flamingo sun glasses to get "their groove on". On a serious note, the sign "Free Beer" always concerns me, but I really need to tip my hat(without parrots or flamingos on them) to the organizers of this event; it is a family event, everyone was having a great time, and we never saw any hint of any trouble at all. There was a line of "shuttle buses", limos, and we even saw two taxi cabs arrive as we were leaving.
I counted 3 booths serving up Red Hook, Bud, Bud Light, and Bacardi Ice, so there was never a long wait.
Having never attended this event before, we really didn’t know what to expect…so note to myself for next time; the crawfish isn’t served til 130pm. Also, I saw several people bring in fruits and various appetizers, though no outside beverages are allowed. Worried about dehydration? That’s covered…there are tubs of of iced bottled water and sodas located in different locations.
At that moment in time, I wasn’t worried about dehydration, and it felt much too hot for beer, but man I was hungry! Luckily, I saw the sign….."Thibodaux Bayou Boyz"
While standing in line contemplating what to eat(the Missus said she was "waiting for the good stuff"), I saw the interesting "tub" pictured on the right, hmmmm…….
"Spicy Cajun Eggs"($2.00), I just knew I had to check it out.
These were your basic pickled eggs with Cajun spices thrown in. I happen to really like good pickled eggs, and though these eggs had not been pickled long enough, I thought these were rather good. The Missus decided to have a taste, and found that She didn’t care for pickled eggs. I loved the look on Her face, though! The Missus loves boiled eggs, but I don’t think She’ll be grabbing for the jar of pickled eggs anytime soon!
I also got the Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya($4.00):
I was a bit underwhelmed at the "look" of the Jambalaya, but it turned out to be pretty good, with lots of flavor. Even the Missus(who was still holding out for the "good stuff"), enjoyed some of it.
Just as I was finishing up we noticed that the line waiting for the crawfish was getting kinda long, so we divided up our resources. We had the "beer team" go out and grab some beer, before the 2pm deadline, the "table team" used the provided newspaper and masking tape to cover the table, and also tried to consume the liquid refreshment as fast as the beer team to bring it to the table. We went and stood in the crawfish line.
The drill was simple. Each table was provided with a "table ticket" which was used to get a box of crawfish and fixins’.
You could smell the crawfish boilin’ as you stood in line. At 130pm the line started inching along.
The crawfish had been cooked in those large vats, and than separated into boxes to be carried to each table. Sam, who was waiting in line with me was worried that we wouldn’t have enough crawfish….
Our time finally arrived and we carried our box to our table. Now I’d heard the weight of 50lbs bandied about as the amount of food in the box, I’m not quite sure but as Sam and I carried the box to our table, it felt a bit lighter than 50 lbs.
But any doubt that this would be enough food evaporated when we dumped the crawfish out on the table.
Also provided were two large bags, one which contained some of the sweetest corn I ever had, and the other potatoes.
Ayaka could hardly contain herself!
What a spread….now this is food porn!
By this time the Missus had already started in on Her "bugs"……. but I had to take one more shot of Scott, aka, "The King of Crawfish", or was it "the Baron of Brew", or maybe "the Rajah of Red Hook"?
Whatever he called himself, he sure wasn’t the "Emperor of Eating", the Missus easily ate twice as much as he did…..
I’d been told that the crawfish was trucked in from Louisiana. True or not, it was good eating, we did find that the smaller "bugs" had much more flavor, especially the heads…man suckin’ dem heads! In what was a double bonus, several people didn’t eat the heads, so they gave them to either Sam, the Missus, or yours truly. And we kept eating, until we were stuffed and ready for a nap.
This wasn’t our table, but it was a good facsimile of what most tables looked like as we were leaving. We did notice that they didn’t eat their corn, and the thought of grabbing the bag of corn and making a run for it entered our heads….
As we left, we made sure to "reserve our spots" for next year. As the Missus made the turn out of the parking lot(She had not imbibed, so She drove), She told me, "well, that should be enough for at least a whole year!" After a short nap, She looked at me and said, "you’ll find this funny, but I could eat another few pounds of crawfish!" Sigh……
We both enjoyed this event, it is well organized, and all details are planned out well. It also dispels the belief that free beer means trouble. Though a competitive game of Bocce Ball…well that’s a different story!