Somebody get me some crawfish!!!

90 percent of the crawfish produced in the United States is produced in the great state of Louisiana.  90 percent of the crawfish harvested in Louisiana is consumed in Louisiana.  Louisianians don't mind sharing but they keep their crawfish to themselves.  The love themselves some crawfish.

Crawfish at Clesi's on Bienville Street in New Orleans, LA

Where you live, crawfish is an expensive delicacy.  In Louisiana, it's the common person's food.  It sells from between $2.00-$4.00 a pound depending on what time in the season it is.

We're reaching the end of this year's crawfish season.  The crawfish are getting hard, which means the shells are getting hard.  Boiled crawfish are served whole, in the shell.  You eat the tail meat and suck out the good stuff in the head.  There isn't much meat in the claws and it's hard work to get at it, especially this time of year.

Crawfish are tiny freshwater lobsters.  They live in the swamp.  If you travel the back roads of Plaquemines or St. Bernard or St. Charles or St. James or St. John the Baptist or Terrebonne Parishes, you'll see people netting them in the drainage ditches on the side of the road.  Wild crawfish are the best eats.  Those are free.

Crawfish are farmed, too.  In the rice paddies out by Crowley and Morgan City and Lafayette, or out in the Cajun Prairie, in the western part of southern Louisiana, the crawfish for sale are a mixture of wild-caught and farmed.  Wherever you go in southern Louisiana between late January and mid-July, crawfish are usually on the menu.

Crawfish are God's gift to this wonderful state we call home.

The side of The Community Bookstore on Bayou Road in New Orelans, LA

If you are the mood for some real American food that you can't get anywhere else in this wide-ranging and mythical country, there is only state where you get crawfish for $3.50 a pound this time of year.  It's in Louisiana.  If you're going to visit Louisiana, there is really one city to visit.  It's the city that Frau Schmitt and I are proud to call home: New Orleans.  Maybe you've heard of New Orleans?

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
----You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.

There is a physical New Orleans and then there is a New Orleans of the heart.  Keep your eyes open in this wonderful city we call home and you’ll learn what it means to fall in love with New Orleans.  We’re here for you.  You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue.    Follow our other blog, or, follow us on Facebook, subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page.  Keep yourself in a New Orleans state of mind.  There is regular happy, and then there is New Orleans happy.  When you’re ready to visit, you know where to find us: we’re in the bright orange house with blue shutters.  Good memories are made on our street.

We only have five suites.  Ours is a small artisanal operation.  You know how you get the best beer from a craft brewery.  Well, you get the best hospitality from a craft hotel.  We know what we’re doing.  Let us share the real New Orleans with you, not the off-the-rack version.  Plug your dates into our calendar and see what we have available.  Plan ahead.  With only five suites we tend to fill up early.

Stay as long as you can.  No one ever says their visit to New Orleans is too long.  They always say it is too short.  The longer you are here, the more you’ll realize how much more there is to discover and explore.  There are good surprises around every corner.  New Orleans blooms with happiness.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us, that’s what we’re here for.  We look forward to meeting you in person.

Ranked the #1 place to stay in New Orleans since April 2014 for very good reasons:

...One of the top five places to stay in the U.S. and the top 25 in the world.