Crayfish and Crawfish and Mudbugs OH MY

I do enjoy the premiere episodes of American Idol.  A guilty pleasure indeed.  To be honest, I couldn't care less about the rest of the season or who will ultimately win the competition.  I just love the losers they have during the first week or two on the show.  I laugh so hard it hurts.  I have people that I send instant messages back and forth with as the show is going on and we just howl at the antics.  I have actually come close to falling out of my chair, hyperventalating, and choking on my mint tea as I watch.  It's simply a great way to end a stressful day.  Laughing that hard MUST have medicinal properties because I swear I sleep better after I watch it. 

Ok, side note...my dog has sleep apnea.  I am convinced of it.  She snores like a man, then stops breathing and twitches herself awake.  Very odd.

I have been here in the Shreveport Bossier area for just over a year now and have learned one great truth about this quasi-city.  These people love...nay...they WORSHIP their crawfish.  They have nicknames for them, like crayfish and mudbugs.  They have an entire festival dedicated to the crawfish that takes place every spring.  They make them into gumbo, etuffee and just plain boiled.  The crawfish to them is everything.  I admire their dedication to the little crustacean.   I, however, have a different impression of the crawfish.  My first experience with a crawfish was in the 8th grade where we were required to dissect one in science class as part of our final exam.  My next and only other experience with the mudbug was 20 years later, right here in Shreveport.  This is partly because I have never again had reason to even think about the crawfish once I passed my science class, much like I never again thought about the worm we were required to dissect as our first project in the class.   Now that I was here, bombarded daily by everything craw, I figured  I would at least try and see what all the fuss was about.  When in Rome, right?  Admittedly, I had a tough time getting past the whole 8th grade dissection thing, but get over myself I did.  I went to a local restaurant, and had myself a mudbug.  I immediately knew why it got the nickname "mudbug".  Because that is exactly what it tasted like.  A bug that someone dug up out of the mud, heated up and put on the plate.  Crawfish are tricky little suckers too, they show up on your plate disguised as little midget lobsters.  Do not be fooled.  They are really, reallly NOT lobsters.  Really. 

Disappointed,  I had to step outside myself and see if I was just being biased.  Too consumed consciously or otherwise by the science class all those years ago, perhaps?  I came to the honest self realization that I was not biased.  In fact, the truth of the matter is, I think the people here eat crawfish for one reason and one reason only.  They can't afford lobster.