It's crawfish season.
I'm Lee Roan with Galison.com TV.
Today we're going to go in search of the best boiled crawfish on the island.
First stop, beinos.
So we're inside now at beinos.
This is Tracy Delts.
Good to see you.
Good to see you.
We're going to go in the kitchen and take a look.
We're cooking for about five to ten minutes, but to really look for more time is to look
for them to turn a real bright red.
When they're done, they'll float high on the water.
From there we can put them in the season water and let them soak in there for about five minutes
or so.
It really sucks up the juice.
And that just sucks up the juice.
Yeah.
And that's where it picks up all the flavor.
From there, then they'll go out.
Great setting for eating crawfish.
Yeah.
Wow.
And here we go.
Looks great.
Is that chapter?
Yeah.
We'll have a couple with you, Tracy.
Yep, that's how they're supposed to taste.
I can taste the lemon juice.
The season.
It's not too, too spicy, but it's good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You don't want to just try and burn everybody's mouth up.
I mean, anybody can do that.
You put enough red pepper on anything, it'll make it hot.
But you just want it all working together where you can taste the spice and get a little
bit of burn out of it, but not overpower everything else.
Well, Tracy, this has been a real treat.
I appreciate your time.
If you don't mind, I'm going to just sit here and finish this batch.
I did, yeah.
Go ahead and get you something to drink and help wash it all down if you want.
Cold beer sounds good.
Thank you.
All right.
So now we're at Joe's Crab Shack on the seawall.
You probably know Joe's because of their snow crab, dungeness crab, king crab, but did
you know they make great boiled crawfish?
Let's go behind the scenes and take a look.
So this is Cameron Lloyd.
Hi, Cameron.
Hey, can you show me what's going on?
Absolutely.
So this is where all of our magic happens, with crab meat and our middle name.
This is our signature item.
So we have a full cluster of snow crab, a full cluster of dungeness crab, sausage, corn,
potato, shrimp, all of it right here, served in one platter, steaming hot.
He pops a lid right on there to keep in as much of the steam as possible after he seasons
it.
And just like that, we're ready to serve it to the guests and they're about to enjoy
some of the best food they've ever eaten.
So those crabs are beautiful, but check this out, we're out here.
This is what we're most excited about, because this is our spring patio party.
So we're actually going to be boiling all the live crawfish right here in front of
our guests.
It doesn't get any fresher than this while they listen to the live music.
Let's see what happens.
So here is a full pound of live crawfish.
It's served with corn on the cob, potatoes, red potatoes, and then we're going to put
that right here in front of the guests, just takes about 45 seconds actually.
So while they come out, listen to live music every Friday night, they're going to be able
to come up and get as many pounds of crawfish as they want and enjoy it with this beautiful
backdrop right behind us.
The kids are playing on the playground, the cocktails and the beer are flowing, life
is good.
And that's Friday nights in the spring?
This is every Friday night in the spring, absolutely.
Let's take a little taste test here, Cameron.
Dig in.
Good crawfish.
I guess just like they do it on the shore, huh?
Absolutely.
That's wonderful.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
This is Cajun Greek on 61st Street, and here they have some really spicy crawfish.
Let's go have a taste.
Oh wow, look at this.
Darn good crawfish.
Darn good crawfish.
In good size.
You better order something.
I think I will.
Do y'all eat here often?
What's up?
Probably every week.
Every week, huh?
That's just a few extra pounds on you, but it's true.
You're a mouthful of red.
They hot?
They're spicy.
They're spicy.
Supposed to be.
You know, when you cross the causeway, leave your diet on that side on the main line.
Because when you get here, the food is so good, you just need to enjoy it.
Come on with it full time.
Exactly.
This is Eddie Alvarez.
He's going to show us how to make some crawfish right this way.
So this is the Greek side of the Cajun Greek.
Yes, yes.
This is the Greek side.
I love it.
I love it.
Typically, we do a three pound order.
This is what it's mostly requested.
We weigh them up to order and cook them to order.
So this is three pounds.
Three pounds.
Three pounds of crawfish.
Beautiful.
One of the tricks we like to do is elevate the tray there so the juices pull at the bottom
and you have a dipping sauce there.
That's brilliant.
You first.
Wow, let's see.
Spiced to perfection.
So if you're sitting in the hotel room and you're looking for some place to go, we're
definitely the spot to come for your spicy crawfish needs to soar.
Being on 61st Street, you know, people think everything's on Siwa but when you're coming
in, it's right here on 61st Street on the east side.
Right on the corner of R and 61st.
Yeah.
You can't miss, you know, the name Cajun Greek.
It's a little different.
