Last week, I ate my very first crawfish. You should understand that this was monumental. I’m the girl who washes her hands a lot while she cooks, or even, makes a sandwich. It hasn’t reached an OCD level (yet), but I really, really hate the feeling of food stuff on my fingers. And when you snap the head off a crawfish, you definitely get stuff on your fingers. And on your clothes and occasionally squirt! right in the eye. Everyone around me at the industry party looked like they were having a great ole time dismembering their dinners, but I couldn’t help inwardly screaming, “Oh my god, get it off! GET IT OFF!”
By the time I’d touched my fourth crustacean, I had demolished two paper towels and a short stack of napkins. Honestly, if I hadn’t been so hungry, and had there been more than just a few Altoids in my purse, I would have stopped right there.
As much as I dislike the parts of my personality that are uptight and inflexible, and as hard as I try to live in the moment and enjoy life as it happens, that is one of life’s little moments that I’m going to make sure doesn’t happen again. Because being the spaz at the table ripping handi-wipes from her purse in a fit of clean freak is really no way to endear oneself to new coworkers.
Not to mention the unsightly, full-body shudders that gripped me from seeing all that gunk under my fingernails. Not. Pretty.
Tonight, I’m joining Stephanie at a librarian convention dinner. She’s speaking; I happen to provide top-notch moral support and look good in a dress (i.e. I am the perfect date) and I am really looking forward to it because I haven’t seen her in many moons. And, a little, because I’m pretty sure I’ll get to eat my dinner with silverware.
I’m with you on this one. If I’m being served dinner, I really don’t want to be “snapping the heads off” of anything, thank you very much. As much as I love seafood, I never order crab legs or lobster unless I’m sure that I will not have to dismember them myself at the table. Honestly, lobsters taste good, but they are giant underwater bugs and I’d rather not have its dismembered head staring at me while I munch on its claw to remind me of that. (not to mention the always appetizing view of lobster guts that you get when you break off the tail… whose idea was it to serve them this way?)
I can’t even stand it when they leave the tails on the shrimp – especially in pasta dishes. Um… why would a chef leave a bunch of in-edible bits of shell mixed into my food that I’m going to have to fish out and pile up on the side of my plate? Disgusting.
I’m from maryland and we eat crabs that way – very messy – gunk under the nails – it definitely takes practice!! Good for you for trying the crawfish!
I gotta say…I think the head-snapping-off would upset me more than the gook on my hands. Eek.
I am the same way when it comes to eating food. I do not like to get dirty. I refuse to eat chicken wings for that reason. All the grease and the sauce getting all over my hands…no thank you. Same with pizza. I eat it with a knife and fork. It may look funny but it makes me happy!
I looooove crawfish, dawlin. I get the messy part, even though that doesn’t bother me. But don’t they just taste fantastic! I get to go to a huge crawfish boil this weekend, and I’m awfully excited.
Funny post!
When I visited a friend in Houma, Louisiana, she and her family had a huge outdoor crawfish-eatin’ party… They taught me to snap the heads and help whip up a scrumptious Crawfish Etouffee. I had to get in the spirit or I’d be the party pooper. It actually didn’t taste that bad despite how messy and stinky it was. But man oh man, despite politely declining, they sent me back home (mind you, on a 13 hour drive back to Atlanta, GA) with a giant cooler of crawfish and two boxes of Etouffee mix! Talk about stink! After all that, I just had to teach my Atlantan friends how to snap heads and appreciate the gore for the taste of the ettouffe. They were impressed. It took months to get that stench out of my car, though.
I’m much the same way, unless a plate of St. Louis-style ribs is set in front of me. Then all bets are off. : )
I TRY to do the rib thing, and eventually resort to pulling the meat off with a fork. I’m sad.
Hint: We go to Nate’s in Addison a lot – my friends and I – and what I’ll tell you is priceless is a friend who’ll do the peeling for you and even give you a hot towel and a lemon to help degunk if needed afterward.
Me too!!! I HATE having food on my hands (or face) and I definitel indulge in obsessive napkin use whenever I eat anything.
My husband, however, is the complete opposite. I cringe every time he reaches for his water glass with food all over his hands. I’m hoping I get used to it eventually.
Went to a good-bye dinner for a colleague Monday at a BBQ joint in NY. The party of 16 was a little… shocked and horrified when a full bbq’d pig was brought to the table. And left there with tongs and rubber gloves.
On the one hand – no gunk under the nails. On the other – do I really need to know that much about what I’m eating?
No.
OMG!!!! I thought I was the only person who obssesivly washed their hands while cooking!!!! And that I was a horrible person for going through a jumbo stack of napkins while eating with my fingers!!!! I’m so glad to know I’m not alone in my “food gunk” quirk. Very rarely do I ever deviate from the silverware (chicken wings, chips & dip, and the occasional midnight take-out raid are the exceptions). Indeed you are a stronger woman than me, because I would have rather starved than pop the head off of anything (much less suck it’s guts out of it’s body!). Kudos to you for being up for the “challenge”!
I’m like this with buffalo wings. My boyfriend orders wings wherever we go… literally, wherever we go. (Note to guys out there: If there’s a white tablecloth, vintage merlot, and I’m wearing a dress, ordering wings is not classy dude.) Anyway, I have to wipe my hands and face after every bite. I can only get through 2 wings before I’m so tired of dealing with it, I just give up. Which is probably better for my diet anyway.
Heather, you crack me up! Not only are we birthday twins, but OCD twins too, apparently! I first had chicken wings a couple of years ago, and after protesting with “I don’t eat off of bones,” I finally attacked ‘em with a knife and fork. And it takes a big craving for me to work on crab legs, but the green stuff freaks me out! Is it asking too much that food come ready-to-eat instead of ready-to-dismember?
Love the blog – I read it every day!
no head snapping for me. i just can’t do it. good on you for at least trying it!
i’ve read both you and stephanie’s blogs for years now… have fun and take pictures!
P.S. Heather, what is your stance on corn-on-the-cob? I have to floss in between ears! The only thing I hate more than messy hands is food in my teeth, especially when I can feel it!
And my crush grows just a bit more.
Di, i’m actually headed there TOMORROW for my very first crawfish boil of the season (late for folks down here), and i cannot wait! some of the best eatin’ ever, i tell ya.
I am so with you on this one! I hate that icky, finger food feeling. Ugh. Ribs, wings, crab, lobster… the list really is endless. And as for my nails, they’re never more than a couple of millimetres long to avoid that gunkness. Gross! Actually, I’ve taken it to a new level of OCDness recently. I don’t enjoy cooking meat at home anymore. The few times I have forced myself to make pasta sauce with ground beef or something similar, I can’t bring myself to eat it afterwards.
I am soooo right there with ya. And frankly — I can’t eat anything that looks like what it did when it was alive. I love shellfish — just as long as it is removed from its exoskeleton, thankyouverymuch. I also love wings — but must have a very large stack of napkins and wipes at my side.
I’m with you on the crawfish. I tried it once and decided it was a bit too messy. I used to be a handwasher as a kid, but now I just use quite a few napkins. But I will peel & eat shrimp (can’t resist them) and even crab legs (I’ve got a crab cracking master for a husband, so if I plead he’ll do mine for me sometimes). Another name for crawfish is mudbugs… doesn’t that make you feel like eating them! NOT!
This is too funny…just two weeks ago, I went to the 1st Annual Crawfish Festival in Syracuse, NY.
The event was hosted by a local group that has traveled to New Orleans several times to help rebuild houses after Hurricane Katrina.
The “only” reason I went was as moral support for a friend who participates in the rebuild.
I too am offended by eating food that looks like it did when it was alive…and don’t even get me started about finger food!
Congratulations to you for trying though!
Ah, the old icky hands, get if off me, get if off me situation.
Well, I came across this site today and thought of your post. And no, it’s not repulsive to the ordinary person but you may find it uncomfortable because a) it’s food misused and b) it’s performance art and that’s just never normal.
I have yet to do the crawfish thing. I worry that my handwashing may soon reach the OCD level, but beyond that even, I don’t think I can do crawfish.
The kids catch them when we go to the lake and we watch them and let them go. I think they would FREAK if I got some to eat.
I can so see myself with a bathtub full of them so the kids could “save” them. I can’t even imagine the kids seeing me rip the heads off…. lol…. that might be trouble, but then again maybe they would take me more seriously when I was mad…
I used to love crawfish, shrimp, lobster. In fact, if it was a crustacean, I ate it. Then I taught my third graders a tide pool unit and that was the end of it for me. I can never eat another “filter” again. UGH!
Yuck! You poor thing! I once went to a friend’s house and they had the lobster flown in for the party. I got squirted by the green stuff and it took me a decade or so before I would eat lobster again.
I just want the tail, served with lots of utensils.
You need to go to New Orleans Jazz Fest and take the crawfish test, Heather. A nice ride on I-10. The music and natives will take your mind off of the yuck factor.
Crawfish will always bring to mind my dog and how horrible she smelled after pulling them from the creek in our backyard and rolling on them after she killed them. I’m sure I just made that extra appetizing for you, but I think you should get kudos for sticking through it and actually eating them, cause I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do that, without vomiting. Congrats lol…
I just thought of something that is finger licking good. Chocolate. And maple syrup.
I had my first crawfish a couple of weeks ago. I made the mistake of wearing a white shirt!
Anyway, I am the same way when I eat chicken wings. I swear I don’t know how people can avoid going through a whole roll of paper towels!
hmm.. as a born and raised Louisiana girl, I feel the need to interject, it’s not really a head snap, more of a twist and pull. Sorry about the guts and goodness, but that’s how boiled crawfish are. If you liked the taste but not the mess, try having someone else peel them for you. I used to do that when i was a little girl. Then there’s the virtually no mess… and then there’s always ettouffe.
I’m right there with you. I pretty much always have handiwipes, I even keep a container in the cup holder in my car for after pumping gas and shopping.
Why anyone would eat bottom feeders anyway, is beside me. GROSS!!!