Day Twenty Three – Crawfish Boil

Blues Idiom – Dig – To dig something is to ‘get’ it. Linguist David Dalby traced this usage of ‘dig’ to the Wolof word deg of degu, which means ‘to understand, to call attention too, or to appreciate.

I was up at 10, a little dusty to say the least. The girls are still sleeping when I slipped out to Envy’s for a late breakfast. The line at Envy’s was to long so I scooted around to the Magnolia Grill. I ordered the seafood omelette (crawfish and shrimp), hash browns and hot sauce. Mental note made to come back as the omelette is delectable.

We have arranged to go back to Iggy’s at 3 for a lift to the crawfish boil. I am dogged tired but this is too good an opportunity to let go. A true neighbourhood bar crawfish boil. We got to the bar just after 3 and Big Dave came over to say hello. He even remembered our names. I went for a piss and walked down the length of the bar counter to the restroom. There is maybe 9 locals propt at the bar and all of them said ‘how are you doin.’ I said to Big Dave, ‘we can walk to the bar if you have a full car.’ ‘No,’ he replied ‘it much to far to walk and you would also have to walk through some areas that you may not want to.’

We left at 4 o’clock for the drive down. Kate is amazed that my  drink is poured it to a take out cup as is Big Dave so we can still enjoy a drink for the drive. Only in New Orleans do you drive with one hand on the wheel and one hand holding your beer. Big Dave is right about some of the areas we drove through as they did look a little rough. He pulled off the main road for a look at Fats Domino’s home.

We arrived at Mark’s bar in Saint Bernard’s Parish. The bar is called Perino’s. We had a look at the boil in progress. Kate was gobsmacked when she saw a huge sack of live crawfish which will be part of the second of three boils. Kate remarked that it is lucky that Cara is not with us. Into the mixture is also thrown potato and corn cobs. We met Mark and although he has lived in New Orleans for 20 years there is no mistaking his accent. He was rapt when we gave him a tube of vegemite. We met some of the locals are all were very welcoming. Beer in hand and it wasn’t long before a four foot by two foot metal table was covered with crawfish ready for eating. We were given our own  very large tray, piled high with crawfish and potato, corn and sausage a mountain of napkins and told to go for it. Ed came over. He is mid sixty with a long grey ponytail and he gave us lessons in ‘suckin de head and eating the tail.’ Ed, no matter how he tried, could not get Kate to give them a try. Oh so good they were, spicy and hot. At one stage I had to get Kate to clean my glasses as I was spraying crawfish juices everywhere. Oh I forgot to tell you this was a free crawfish boil. Also on offer was a huge pot of Jambalaya. The juke box was rockin’ and the beer was cold.

Wendy has been outside at the boil and has come back with a great oyster recipe as well as how to do the boil. We could do it at home and just substitute prawns. The T.V. has been showing the first Pelicans playoff game and although they got beat they did come back from a 24 point deficit to get within 5 points.

Around 6:30 Big Dave offered us a ride back to Iggy’s. His car holds five people but we had six onboard. He drives a smallish hatch back and there is a passenger (Mike) in the trunk. What a hoot the trip back was, singing and joke telling. We had a drink at Iggy’s as it would have been rude to just leave. Mike came over and chatted and gave us a few more ideas on where to grab some good food.

Kate is hungry so we called into Buffa’s (one of Mike’s suggestions)on Esplanade for a bite to eat. The back room as an acoustic guitarist and trumpet player in session. I just ordered a small bowl of red beans and rice with a side of sausage. Kate ordered the chicken breast sandwich but was surprised on how big her meal was once it came out.
We walked back (yes in the rain) to out apartment

What  a great day with locals who was again showed us that Southern hospitality.

Rob Rowe