The LSU San Diego Alumni 19th Annual Crawfish Boil

Now what better way to spend part of your Memorial Day weekend, than to attend a honest to goodness crawfish boil? Very few things in life top good food, people in a festive mood, and really bad sunburn! First off, nope we're not LSU (that would be Louisiana State University) Alumni, but managed to snag 2 tickets from a friend who somehow managed to get a whole table. Not an easy task, there are "only" 2500 tickets sold for this yearly event. Tickets aren't cheap, either, 50 bucks a head...but you'll see that it's worth it!

The event was held at the Qualcomm Stadium practice field...which I think is now a rugby field, and is put on by the San Diego LSU Alumni Club.

We arrived just before noon, and the party was already in full swing.

 

Must be the great music, right?

You'd be partially right, the music was great, and the mood festive, but I think it's what's written on  the sign to the right that also motivated those with parrot hats and flamingo sun glasses to get "their groove on". On a serious note, the sign "Free Beer" always concerns me, but I really need to tip my hat(without parrots or flamingos on them) to the organizers of this event; it is a family event, everyone was having a great time, and we never saw any hint of any trouble at all. There was a line of "shuttle buses", limos, and we even saw two taxi cabs arrive as we were leaving.

I counted 3 booths serving up Red Hook, Bud, Bud Light, and Bacardi Ice, so there was never a long wait.

Having never attended this event before, we really didn't know what to expect...so note to myself for next time; the crawfish isn't served til 130pm. Also, I saw several people bring in fruits and various appetizers, though no outside beverages are allowed. Worried about dehydration? That's covered...there are tubs of of iced bottled water and sodas located in different locations.

At that moment in time, I wasn't worried about dehydration, and it felt much too hot for beer, but man I was hungry! Luckily, I saw the sign....."Thibodaux Bayou Boyz"

While standing in line contemplating what to eat(the Missus said she was "waiting for the good stuff"), I saw the interesting "tub" pictured on the right, hmmmm.......

"Spicy Cajun Eggs"($2.00), I just knew I had to check it out.

These were your basic pickled eggs with Cajun spices thrown in. I happen to really like good pickled eggs, and though these eggs had not been pickled long enough, I thought these were rather good. The Missus decided to have a taste, and found that She didn't care for pickled eggs. I loved the look on Her face, though! The Missus loves boiled eggs, but I don't think She'll be grabbing for the jar of pickled eggs anytime soon!

I also got the Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya($4.00):

I was a bit underwhelmed at the "look" of the Jambalaya, but it turned out to be pretty good, with lots of flavor. Even the Missus(who was still holding out for the "good stuff"), enjoyed some of it.

Just as I was finishing up we noticed that the line waiting for the crawfish was getting kinda long, so we divided up our resources. We had the "beer team" go out and grab some beer, before the 2pm deadline, the "table team" used the provided newspaper and masking tape to cover the table, and also tried to consume the liquid refreshment as fast as the beer team to bring it to the table. We went and stood in the crawfish line.

The drill was simple. Each table was provided with a "table ticket" which was used to get a box of crawfish and fixins'.

You could smell the crawfish boilin' as you stood in line. At 130pm the line started inching along.

The crawfish had been cooked in those large vats, and than separated into boxes to be carried to each table. Sam, who was waiting in line with me was worried that we wouldn't have enough crawfish....

Our time finally arrived and we carried our box to our table. Now I'd heard the weight of 50lbs bandied about as the amount of food in the box, I'm not quite sure but as Sam and I carried the box to our table, it felt a bit lighter than 50 lbs.

But any doubt that this would be enough food evaporated when we dumped the crawfish out on the table.

Also provided were two large bags, one which contained some of the sweetest corn I ever had, and the other potatoes.

Ayaka could hardly contain herself!

What a spread....now this is food porn!

By this time the Missus had already started in on Her "bugs"....... but I had to take one more shot of Scott, aka, "The King of Crawfish", or was it "the Baron of Brew", or maybe "the Rajah of Red Hook"?

Whatever he called himself, he sure wasn't the "Emperor of Eating", the Missus easily ate twice as much as he did.....

I'd been told that the crawfish was trucked in from Louisiana. True or not, it was good eating, we did find that the smaller "bugs" had much more flavor, especially the heads...man suckin' dem heads! In what was a double bonus, several people didn't eat the heads, so they gave them to either Sam, the Missus, or yours truly. And we kept eating, until we were stuffed and ready for a nap.

This wasn't our table, but it was a good facsimile of what most tables looked like as we were leaving. We did notice that they didn't eat their corn, and the thought of grabbing the bag of corn and making a run for it entered our heads....

As we left, we made sure to "reserve our spots" for next year. As the Missus made the turn out of the parking lot(She had not imbibed, so She drove), She told me, "well, that should be enough for at least a whole year!" After a short nap, She looked at me and said, "you'll find this funny, but I could eat another few pounds of crawfish!" Sigh......

We both enjoyed this event, it is well organized, and all details are planned out well. It also dispels the belief that free beer means trouble. Though a competitive game of Bocce Ball...well that's a different story!

Comments

[nhbilly]

LOL.....those craw daddies looks pretty decent. I could probably polish off 15lbs by myself. With my dad we can do 100lbs for break,lunch , and dinner. LOL
The dark red craw daddies looks great and all but are such a pain compare to the lighter colored ones.
Sounds fun!

[seafoodjunkie]

Glorious gastric excess!!! You need to give special kudos to the beer runners, it looked like they had snagged 3-4 cups for each diner before the 2pm cutoff. The freshest, simplest, food is always the best. It was painful seeing the foto of the other table, with the unopened corn sack, and all of the potatoes just scattered around untouched. They don't know what they were missing, the corn and potato pick up such great flavor from the seafood and spices in the boil. Of course, if they let you do a doggie bag, would you gather the corn and potatoes, or would you grab 20-30 lbs of shells to make a killer seafood stock? Now I can't wait for the Crabpot on Convoy open

[Dale]

Hmmmm... I think that I'm going to have to do me a nice big shrimp boil this Summer...

[Wandering Chopsticks]

Oh, man, all that bright shiny red from the crawfish! Looks soooo good! Not too mushy? I've bought some at the grocery store that was frozen and the meat was all mushy. Not like the freshly caught crawfish I used to have in Oregon.

[angel van]

i miss crawfish so much. last year when we went to new orleans for xmas. we ate 50 lbs at my grandparents house on xmas day and brought 75 lbs back to NC with us. there is a place online where you can order crawfish that i heard was really goood. www.lacrawfish.com

[Jo]

yup yup, thea it is folks! And Kirk, it's a mere 912 miles from our house to NO LA! Although it might be easier to just go to Slidell... or Houma... ::wink::

[Dee]

Wow! I'd never been a big fan of crawfish, but that looks good! By the way, thanks for doing a post on Tacos El Gordo. Next time you *have* to try the buche (pork stomach). It can be too salty sometimes, but always tender & awesomely chewy! On a completely different note: went to Lucky Star for dimsum today, and service was extremely slow. To top it all off, my friend found a little roach in her Shrimp Cheong Fun! The (what I assumed was)manager immediately comped our bill, but we doubt we're going back there again. Should've followed your lead and quit going there a long time ago!

[Beach]

Wow,
What a feast? It looks great. I have never tried Crawfish but I might just do it this weekend with my sons. Is this happened only on Memorial Day?

[Steamy Kitchen]

that is food porn to the max. i would have dove right in and done backflips in that mound of crawfish!

[Kirk]

Hi Billy - This was a great time.....15lbs in one sitting, eh?

Hi seafoodjunkie - Thanks for visiting and commenting! There were several people going from table to table checking to see if anyone wanted to "donate" their leftover crawfish....they ended up with quite a stash.

Hi Dale - Now that sounds delici-yoso!!!

Hi WC - These were brought in live from La. Really good stuff!

Hi Angel Van - I can understand how this stuff can be really addictive.

Hi Jo - And a mere 8 miles to Qualcomm Stadium for us! ;o) Actually, I'm a bit glad that I don't eat this too often...I'm have to buy a bigger belt.

Hi Dee - We used to enjoy Lucky Star....until that really nasty experience. Thanks for reminding me of Tacos El Gordo, and we'll have some buche next time!

Hi Beach - This event only happens once a year. But, you have access to all those crawfish/crab boil places in Westminster!

Hi SK - backflips into a pool of crawfish!!! LOL! ;o)

[Kathy]

i know it's supposed to be all about the crawfish...but you got me stuck on the pickled eggs, I've never tried one! :)

[Kirk]

Hi Kathy - All that crawfish, and all you can think of are the pickled eggs? LOL! ;o)

[rob]

Your killing me Kirk. We used to do Low Country Boils almost every weekend when I lived in the Savannah. Either with Crayfish or local shrimp. Mmmmm....Low Country Boil. Nothing like a picnic table full off spicy mud bugs and ice cold beer to wash it down. What are the chances of scoring tickets to next years event?

[Kirk]

Hey Rob - Maybe you could try an contact the SD LSU alumni association:

http://www.lsusandiego.org/default.html

And see if they'll put you on their waiting list. I'll let you know when I hear that tickets are available as well.

[Chubbypanda]

The Missus' capacity never fails to amaze me.

[Kirk]

Hi CP - LOL! I'm still amazed and we've been married for almost 10 years! Relentless is the word that comes to mind......