Yesterday we went to the Rattlesnake Derby.
Crowds, of course, milling around staring at rattlesnakes and drawling in Texan.
Booths in the streets and traffic in the alleys.
Carnival squawking and smells of strange things cooking.
Rattlesnake meat
Deep fried turkey legs
Crawdads
They shared a turkey leg--not bad
They tried some rattlesnake--like a tough chicken neck
But those crawdads!
Oh those crawdads!
They looked and smelled as if they had just crawled up from a stagnant drainage ditch and died in the broiling sun.
My husband was giddy with delight.
He bought a couple, cracked them open and scrapped out the tiny bits of white meat.
Only my son-in-law was brave enough to join him in the feast.
They pronounced it delicious.
I made sure they carried the garbage out to the dumpster.
So many strange things people caller dinner!
But I can't bite something that looks that much like a trilobite.
Crawdads? Ah, in Louisiana, they're crawfish. And you gotta eat em while they're hot...fresh from the boil. It's a lot of work...so I usually order the little suckers in an etouffee (prounounced ay-too-fay) and let someone else pluck the meat from their tiny little tails.
ReplyDeleteI've seen people suck the fat from their pointy little heads...but I have no stomach for that.
Sounds like the derby was a lot of fun!
Well, I'm not a seafood lover. A stark account :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree ad I enjoyed your prose. :)
ReplyDeleteI married a Louisiana boy but was born and raised in Michigan He took me crawfishing which entails wading in stagnant water (that you CANNOT see through) and putting out little square nets that have a piece of bacon pinned to the center. By the time you put out 24 nets it is time to go back to the beginning and collect crawfish and re-bate. After most of the day we had a small boat full. We boiled them that night and he had an allergic reaction - I never had to eat them again :)
ReplyDeleteOh, he didn't just buy a couple. He has a pound of them in a used grocery bag. We're talking authentic!
ReplyDeleteI've had both crawdads and rattlesnake -- found them quite yummy. :)
ReplyDeleteRattlesnake was a bit chewy, I thought. However, I could eat crawdads until I explode! Loved your poem; it made me want to go to the Derby.
ReplyDeleteKate
What a great account of your visit to the Rattlesnake Derby. Trilobite sounds good at least you don't have to imagine a little lamb bleating while you're eating!
ReplyDeleteI am not a sea food lover ...yet enjoyed the prose..
ReplyDeleteP.S Thanks for your comment on the pic of my Tranquil Tuesday Series...However due to some wordpress problem it is not visible on the post...
I have such a crawling/tickling feeling. I gave up meat years ago so my tummy is totally sensing the "stagnant drainage ditch" smell. Yuck!
ReplyDeleteYou have one brave guy!!
I thought I loved seafood, but after this description, I am not so sure! Interesting piece!
ReplyDeleteI had rattlesnake years ago. Tasted like lobster.
ReplyDelete-Tim
http://timremp.blogspot.com/2010/04/hiram-grange-devils-dancers.html
tasty treats crawdads.... enjoyed thestory a lot...making sure the delights were tossed in the trash afterwards...hd to laugh dinner day 22
ReplyDeleteep crawdads are great i used to wade out in the shallow water and pick em out of thewater with my fishing pole it was quite a truc once you learned out how to do it. and The salmon in Oregon streams love em too.
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