Timothy Naquin gets a pot of crawfish ready to boil at Crawfish Connection.

Some do, some don’t, they all like the sausage

Who would have thought when the first crawfish was eaten that the backward scampering crustacean would become so popular that it would inspire a festival?

Family reunions, graduations, birthdays and parties of all kinds have brought people together sitting at tables awaiting hot steamy crawfish and fixings to be poured out and consumed at the diner’s own pace. Do you remember the first time you ate crawfish?

Students from North Lewis Elementary have some thoughts on the subject.

Three-year-old Liam Lebit was singing as his father strapped him into the car seat before leaving school. He doesn’t always peel them, but has definite thoughts about eating them.

“I like yummy bugs,” Lebit said, “I squeeze them and I eat them, and bananas.”

His father thought Liam got the corn usually found at crawfish boils confused with bananas. They are both yellow.

Not All Are Fans

The perfect person to sit next to at a crawfish boil is North Lewis Elementary School Principal Tim Rosamond. Although he was raised in New Iberia, he said eating crawfish is not something he enjoys. However, he does accept invitations and hostesses are happy when he sits at their table.

Immediately they hand him a container and Rosamond happily obliges peeling crawfish for the person next to him or for early preparation to be used in ettouffees or other tasty dishes.

Kaiden Yates, 6 years old, hasn’t yet acquired the taste for crawfish or seafood yet. He likes macaroni the best. He was the inspiration for the crawfish macaroni dish featured today. His mother thought he liked crawfish.

Nine-year-old Madison Taylor just tasted her first crawfish last year after moving to New Iberia from Alaska. She thought they were gross at first, but was willing to try one after it was peeled.

Her siblings Charlie, 7, and Emily, 4, like crawfish but twin Brantley, 4, doesn’t. They still have a lot of food exploration but as hearty eaters will try most foods at least the first time.

Sauces Are Important

Christopher Darcey, 10 years old, only eats crawfish boiled. He can’t remember when he first started eating them and likes the potatoes and sausage boiled along with the crawfish.

His instructions for getting into them is evidence he’s been trained up well by a real Cajun family.

“I pinch the shell, I pinch the tail, I twist the tail and then put my finger in the shell and eat the fat,” Darcey said. “I pull off one section of the tail then I squeeze the end and pull it out. That’s about all it takes.”

If the claws are big enough, he’ll eat them and said he really loves crabs, too. It was too hard of a decision to figure out which he prefers. He likes the seasoning to be spicy.

“They are always better spicier, and you might also want to have a dip,” Darcey said. “I make my sauce with ketchup, mayo and I put pepper and hot sauce in it. Sauce is always important at a crawfish boil.”

He eats his potatoes in his sauce, too. Last week Darcey ate his first raw oyster and likes them char-broiled. He wanted to try it without sauce but thought the idea of hot sauce on top was a good one. He also recommended to Rosamond that he start eating boiled crawfish.

Darcey already likes to go crabbing and hunting like a true Louisiana outdoorsman.

Second-grader Addisen Yates likes crawfish if they’re not spicy. She even knows a story about how a crab and a crawfish were tricking one another over a fish until the crab pushed the crawfish into the mud where he got stuck.

She makes her sauce of mayo and ketchup and eats corn and sausage with her crawfish.

“It’s good and there are a lot of people that like crawfish,” Addisen said.

Family Fun

Five-year-old Kristen Morris turns 6 on March 13 and said she’s been peeling crawfish by herself for six months. Usually she eats them from her mom’s plate and doesn’t use a sauce and likes the sausage boiled with the crawfish.

Her first memory of eating crawfish was when she was 3 or 4. Her 9-year-old brother Trey showed her how to pull the tail off. She almost ate it shell and all but he stopped her in time.

Trey eats crawfish more than Kristen, she said. As an older brother would, the last time they ate crawfish he chased her with a live crawfish trying to put it on her head. She stopped him by splashing him with a bucket of water. She said she ran too fast for him to catch her.

Creative Cooking

Alexia Louviere, 13 years old, is a graduate of North Lewis Elementary but gets dropped off after Belle Middle School gets out to wait for her mother who is a teacher.

She could not remember when she first ate crawfish or who taught her how to peel them. She mainly eats them boiled, she said.

Her culinary ideas are not far from the likes of established chefs. When she suggested Crawfish Puff or Biscuit, an online search came up with several variations.

“Actually my mom is not a big fan of crawfish,” Alexia said, “but for my 11th birthday, I had a surprise party crawfish boil at my granny’s.”

She estimated eating about 5 pounds of crawfish, which is her usual portion. She likes a sauce of mayo, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and a little bit of Garlic Power. She likes the crawfish medium.

“I can peel them pretty fast, but I like to enjoy them,” she said. “Sometimes for lunch I just put a big potato in the microwave and bake it.”

She uses the same sauce for her baked potatoes and french fries.

“I don’t eat crawfish ettouffee or crawfish fettecine,” Alexia said. “I hate crawfish ettouffee.”

She’s a purist, but she knows a thing or two about eating boiled crawfish.

“Don’t eat the ones with the tail straight out,” Alexia warned. “They were dead before they were boiled.”