One of the most popular pastimes in Sothern Louisiana is having a big ol’ crawfish boil. I think that was one of my favorite things to do growing up, other than playing Nintendo.

My mom was the tax lady of the town and sometimes her customers would come bearing gifts — huge 10lb sacks of crawfish! I’d get so excited and I couldn’t wait to hear the sounds and smells of the butane tank burning. Here’s our family, back in the 1980s, enjoying a crawfish "bawl" in our backyard.

Judging from the dying grass and my mom’s glasses, I’d put this around the spring of 1986. Seems we enjoyed A&W root beer and Pepsi products. There’s also Tabasco there but I was never really a fan of tabasco in my crawfish dip. The "dip" consists of 2 parts mayo, 1 part ketchup. As I grew older, I also added a bit more crawfish boil seasonings to the dip and that’s how I continue to eat it today. Nowadays in Los Angeles though, my crawfish boils are actually shrimp boils and I use a gas stove instead of a butane burner.

So let’s look at what happens during a crawfish boil. First thing, you get a couple 10lb sacks of crawfish from a local farmer or crawfish stand. Rule of thumb is generally about 3-5lbs per person.

(Most of these pictures are used with permission from Kenneth’s website. Thanks Kenneth!)

Next, and this was one of my favorite things to come home to, we’d throw the crawfish in the bathtub to "purge" them. In order to do this, we’d throw the crawfish in the bathtub, fill it with water and empty about 1 container full of salt into the water. I guess salt water makes the crawfish "purge" all of the stuff that’s in its intestinal track and thus, we don’t have to worry about pulling out the "poo" when we eat the tails. In the picture below, they used an outside tub to clean the crawfish.

Next, you start up your burner to get the water boiling and then you gather all of your seasonings and vegetables. This includes "crawfish boil", potatoes, onions, and ears of corn. Ken also reminded me that some people put in hot dog weiners, mushrooms, smoked sausage and artichokes too. Others also add lemons for flavoring and sometimes carrots. As far as the seasoning goes, we used the liquid kind growing up but now I prefer the dry stuff. Zatarain’s also sells a "boil in bag" but I’ve never really liked that kind. My favorite crawfish boil comes from the company Louisiana Brand and, luckily, they are pretty easy to find here in Southern California

Now that the water is at a rolling boil, it’s time to add in the vegetables and let that cook for awhile. Once that’s done, it should go into an ice chest to keep it warm while the crawfish boils. Now add in more boil and throw in the crawfish

Once your crawfish are done, it’s time to eat! At this point, newspaper, garbage bags or paper grocery bags are laid out on a table and crawfish, potatoes, onions and corn are laid out on top. Next, the tails are peeled off, dipped in dip and eaten. MMmmmM!

There are also resturants in Acadiana that specialize in serving boiled crawfish. "Richard’s Seafood Patio" (pronounced ree shard’s) in Abbeville is one of my favorite and that’s one of the first places I will be going during my trip back home to Louisiana next month!

Again, fellow Cajuns, if I missed anything, let me know

PS. For a super detailed look at having a crawfish boil, which includes catching the crawfish in your own traps (with pictures!) check out William Reed’s webpage.

• New Orleans is not in Cajun Country and only 1% of its population claimed Cajun ethnicity in the 1990 US Census. Cajun Country, or Acadiana, consists of 22 parishes in Southwest Louisiana. Not even Baton Rouge makes the cut. The parish with the highest Cajun population, Vermilion Parish (where I grew up!) claims has a 49% Cajun population.You can read more about all that here.
• Mardi Gras is not just celebrated in New Orleans. It’s celebrated all around Southern Louisiana in towns big and small (Kaplan’s population swells to about 15,000 during the Mardi Gras parade) and our parades are very kid-friendly. When I was growing up, we’d get 3 days off of school to celebrate Mardi Gras.
• We do not eat blackened anything. Like my momma used to say "If its black, its burnt and we throw it out!" It was a dish invented by the famous Cajun chef, Paul Prudhomme. You can read more about it at CajunCulture.com
• Our food isn’t insanely spicy. Most dishes just have a nice little kick.
• We call it "rice dressing" not dirty rice
• We call them "crawfish" not crayfish or crawdads
• Emerile’s food & cooking style does not accurately portray Cajun cooking. As a matter of fact, as Murph points out, Emerile was born in Massachusettes. Justin Wilson and John Folse do a better job.
• We don’t take pirogues to school or work. Come on, people! Only our parents do
• We don’t have pet alligators. Though sometimes we do stop off in Cameron Parish and see if we can find dinner in a lil canal.
• We are not Creole. Many people disagree on the definition but I was initially taught that Creoles are black folk living in Southern Louisiana.

• In addition to lots of beef, pork and poultry, we also eat crawfish, shrimp, alligator, rabbit, frogs, oysters and duck. I also ate squirrel growing up but I don’t know how traditional that is. Edit: Ken Wheaton says that eating squirrel is very traditional and that "Ville Platte and those areas practically shut down the first day of squirrel season."
• We eat breakfast in the morning, dinner at noon and supper in the evening.
• Most of our parents and grandparents spoke Cajun French as their primary language but most of my generation does not even speak it as a second language You can read more about this in the book Cajuns: Americanizations of a People.
• High school dances played Cajun music alongside rap, country and pop. Most of my friends know how to Cajun dance. I was too shy to learn even though I had ample opportunity. My mom is a wonderful dancer.
• Many people in my small Cajun town pass a good time drinking Miller Lite, eating Jack Miller’s BBQ hamburgers and playing softball. Most of them are also Roman Catholic.
• We like our coffee strong and black. Many Cajuns drink Community Coffee and Mello Joy.
• We don’t have many Starbucks. CC’s Coffee (CC is for Community Coffee) is a cafe similar in style and is very popular in SW Louisiana.
• WikiPedia.org has a great writeup of Cajun Cusine.
• We have parishes, not counties. I used to be jealous of other states that had counties. haha.
• We used to be able to buy (but not drink;) alcohol at 18. Then the federal government decided they’d withhold funds for roads if we didn’t up the buying age to 21. Cajuns love to drink and thus, were very disappointed. "I can serve my country but not be served beer?!"
• We say "sha" but its spelled "cher." I’ve grown up saying it two ways .. kids call cute things cher. "Aww cher, this puppy is sooo cute!" while our grandmas and "taunts" call us cher. "Come, sha, give maw-maw a kiss."