Crazy for Crawfish: Long Beach Crawfish Festival

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Long Beach Crawfish Festival

http://www.longbeachcrawfishfestival.com/

With an entire weekend off and no idea what to do with my time, I found myself hopping into my car and driving out of sunny San Diego up to LA for a visit, and when my mom told me they would be at the Crawfish Festival in Long Beach on Saturday and had an extra ticket, I knew I had to tag along. Now, I’m not a huge fan of steamed crawfish or any steamed shellfish really, solely due to the fact that I am lazy and don’t want to work that hard for my food. Luckily, I had a plethora of other down south specialties to choose from, and because I don’t love making choices, I basically just ate everything.

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My huge and ridiculously strong margarita was placed in my hand upon arrival after over an hour in traffic, so refreshing on a 100-degree day, and it did its job almost too well.

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Mom decided that we needed to “take a lap” to check out all of our options, her new husband (Congrats mom and Mike!) told us to bring something back to snack on before he went and picked up his giant bucket of crawfish, so off we went. We wandered a bit before coming to a screeching halt upon reading the words “fries etouffee.” I became etouffee obsessed when visiting New Orleans, and I love fries topped with basically anything, so these guys did not disappoint. Crispy and substantial fries were the perfect base to hold the rich and saucy etouffee, with a little crawfish tucked into each delicious bite.

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Our other choice was the catfish nuggets, because duh, you don’t take a girl to a festival rooted in southern food and deprive her of catfish. Crispy on the outside, perfectly tender and flaky fish on the inside and almost too easy to just keep popping into your mouth, these certainly didn’t last long.
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I couldn’t leave you hanging without proof that there actually was steamed crawfish at this event.  A whole bucket of crawfish was included in the ticket price for only $4 over the general admission price. What a steal! My stepdad Mike is creole, a huge fan of crawfish, and seemed very happy with his giant bucket of crawfish, red potatoes and corn.

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Somehow, I made room for dinner after our little appetizer party, and chose tilapia that was breaded in cornmeal and had the most delicious crunch. I was so full, but could not stop eating and washing it down with my delicious mango/strawberry margarita.

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As we relaxed to the sounds of zydeco music and watched everyone fill up the dance floor, we were treated to the most beautiful sunset over the water. It inspired me to walk to the lit up ice cream truck at the edge of the water for one last treat. While I might be sort of lactose intolerant, I will literally never turn down ice cream and am a total sucker for rainbow sprinkles, so this made me the happiest girl in town!

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The Long Beach Crawfish Festival was such a lovely way to spend an evening, and after attending the Long Beach Funk Festival last year, I highly recommend any event. The city certainly knows how to offer up a great time!

Alexandra

Most everyone is convinced that I only moved to San Diego for the mexican food, and I can’t say they’re wrong. There is nothing I love more than chips, guacamole and a margarita on Taco Tuesday. I grew up in Orange County as the world’s pickiest eater, my mother entirely convinced I would never eat anything except chicken nuggets. I was literally on the pilot episode of Food 911 quoted as saying “I love chicken nuggets” in olive green corduroy overalls, my proudest moment to date. I then got pretty unfortunately chunky in college, and when I started getting skinny I realized broadening my horizons was a must. In the past 5 years I have become a major foodie, and a huge fan of everything green. I have recently taken on the challenge of teaching myself to cook, and make the best brussel sprouts on earth. Aside from my love of mexican food and foray into healthy home cooking, I have the biggest sweet tooth around and love anything and everything dessert. I make it a point to eat something sweet after every meal, and usually have some sort of candy on me at all times, which I balance out with a daily yoga practice and lots of running around like a crazy person. I am itching to get out and start exploring all San Diego has to offer, and am so excited to be able to share my findings here with all of you!

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