Okay, on those mudbugs...
I checked Friday evening and the ones at Wal-Mart were indeed Chinese, packed for some outfit out of Lafayette. So I went on a quest through my other local grocers (Kroger, Randall's (Safeway), H-E-B and a couple of others) to see if I could find domestically raised crawfish tails. The answer was no, all of these places carried frozen crawfish tails packed for outfits out of Louisiana that were marked "Product of China".
Then I had a severe moral failing. I bought some of the Chinese crawfish. After reading mention of the Emeril etouffee recipe (which I had made before at some time in the past), I really wanted to make some. And lest we kid ourselves, it isn't like the ones from Louisiana come from pristine, crystal-clear waters either. The Atchafalaya swamp is like a great big filter at the end of the Mississippi River.
The etouffee came out great, it's an excellent, easy recipe. My wife and daughter really enjoyed it and thus far we're feeling no ill effects. In discussing the quest, my biochemist wife commented that we might have just gotten our RDA of mercury for the year.
So Saturday evening we went to Sam's Club (avoiding the trick-or-treaters) and, lo and behold, there I found U. S. grown crawfish. The brand name was C. J.'s and they were from Breaux Bridge.
These were $10.88 per pound, about the same as the Chinese ones. Anyone who's ever peeled crawfish understands the reason for the cost, it's a labor intensive process. Wanting to support my domestic crawfish producers, I bought 3 pounds of 'em for future use.
I have images of both the etouffee and the US crawfish package but the image upload doesn't seem to want to work for me right now... |
