Our crawfish etouffee is NOT an acquired taste. As we used to say about the Grateful Dead, "you're either on the bus or you're off the bus." When it comes to crawfish etouffee, if you don't "get it" with the first spoonful, you sure as heck won't get it with the second...or third.
It's because of our deep respect for you, those of you on the crawfish etouffee bus, that we write this blog. We have something important to tell you -- but first you need to get yourself a glass of wine, sit down, and take a deep breath.
We've altered the crawfish etouffee recipe. We'll now give you a few moments to fully absorb the impact of this statement. Have you finished hyperventilating? If so, let us explain.
Ever since we added crawfish etouffe to the Brick Oven Bistro menu, we've been making it with a lobster base. It was the very best lobster base we could find, but let's face it, when it come to access to lobster, we're at a bit of a disadvantage here in the City of Trees. It appears, for starters, that we've pretty much fished out the native lobster population from the Boise River. But not long ago we found a source for something that will forever change our crawfish etouffee: lobster bodies.
I know it sounds a bit ghoulish, but when sitting down to a celebratory meal of lobster tails, haven't you ever been the least bit curious about what happened to the rest of the crustacean? The answer is that some enterprising producers have been quick freezing the bodies and sending them to the Brick Oven Bistro (alright, I'm sure others are buying them as well, but they can write their own blogs). In place of lobster base, we are now using lobster bodies to make the stock for our crawfish etouffee.
Why are we doing this? For starters, we just don't believe that "great" is good enough if you can up the culinary ante. Making our soup base with lobster bodies gives our crawfish etouffee a much greater intensity and richness. Besides, we have continually lusted after the taste of etouffee that we cultivated at our favorite source in Houston, Texas (we'll be happy to divulge the name if you're interested). We're not quite there...but we're getting close. For now, we're going to leave judgement of our efforts to you...you etouffee elite, you crawfish cognoscenti, you cravers of cajun. Let us know how we're doing, and we'll keep you posted on when we have crawfish etouffee on the menu.
In the meantime, we do need to issue an advisory: if the thought of dredging up large chunks of crawfish with every spoonful of etouffee is disturbing to you, it might be best if you stuck with the Bistro Club sandwich next time you're here.