Crawfish

People who don’t eat crawfish call them “crayfish” or “crawdads,” two other names for these small, lobsterlike crustaceans. The crawfish season begins around Thanksgiving in a good year, reaches a peak in April and May, and tapers off around the Fourth of July. Crawfish tail meat is available most of the year, but outside the season, it’s usually the much inferior imported product. I recommend eating crawfish only in season

In recent years, the popularity of Cajun cooking has brought about a large increase in the annual consumption of crawfish in America. Crawfish tail meat is usually available in one-pound frozen packages. In gourmet stores, you can sometimes even find live or boiled whole crawfish, much of which comes from China. I would strongly recommend looking for the Louisiana crawfish, which has more fat.