The mighty mud bug is the star of this month's food festival at Broadway Oyster Bar (736 South Broadway; 314-621-8811), and chef Brad Hagen is pulling out all the stops (and all the crawfish) to make this a feast worthy of the Big Easy.
Gut Check spoke with Broadway Oyster Bar's Mary Moramarco to get you all the deets about the upcoming crawdad jamboree.
"We have been putting on our monthly food festivals, including our crawfish fests, for six years now," Moramarco says. "Crawfish is definitely one of the most popular."
It's so popular, in fact, that it's celebrated in both April and May. Crawfish season typically runs from March through June, so Broadway Oyster Bar takes advantage of the fresh, seasonal critters by celebrating again next month. The dates for the May festival have not yet been finalized.
The two crawfish events will feature different dishes made from crawfish, as well as Broadway Oyster Bar's regular menu items. Chef Hagen is still working on the menu for this weekend's event, but he gave us a sneak peek at what the crawfish offerings will be.
Diners can chow down on crawfish bisque, crawfish fondue, crawfish cakes over fried green tomatoes, crawfish sliders served with crawfish mac & cheese, crawfish-stuffed grouper topped with crawfish florentine sauce, crawfish pistolets (bread stuffed with crawfish, then fried), crawfish etouffee balls (breaded and deep fried) and, of course, a crawfish boil, which will include spicy crawfish, corn on the cob, potatoes and andouille sausage. The crawfish boil gets dumped straight on a paper-covered table, Louisiana-style.
If that's not enough for you, we've heard tell of a crawfish cheesecake that pops up at Broadway Oyster Bar from time to time. This has been neither confirmed nor denied, so it looks like you'll just have head down to the festival to find out.
Oh, and don't forget proper crawdad etiquette. You're supposed to squeeze the head and suck on it to get the most juice. Go on, everyone's doing it.
