Portland Restaurant Guide

The best way to enjoy crawfish is also the simplest: boiled in water, smothered with butter, peppers, garlic and Cajun seasonings and accompanied by potatoes, sausage, and corn.

Crawfish cooked this way - a crawfish boil - is as much social event as dish, a springtime ritual not to be missed. Nothing says "party" like a crawfish boil.

Of course, you'll have to know how to peel and eat a crawfish, in order to show your guests. You can separate the natives from the tourists by watching who makes it looks easy.

Grab a nice, fat crawfish from the mound of steaming red in front of you, then:

Twist the head away from the tail and set it aside.

Peel a couple or three segments of shell along the tail, exposing more meat. Find the sweet spot at the bottom end of the tail.

Pinch and watch the meat slide out of its shell.

Eventually you do get the hang of it.

Beverages of choice are sodas for the youngsters and cold beer for others. Buy Abita Beer, made from spring water found in Abita Springs, La., and your friends will think you've gone native. It's readily available at My Brother's Crawfish.

THE RIGHT MUSIC SETS THE MOOD

No crawfish boil is complete without the appropriate combination of Jazz and New Orleans music playing in the background while you load up on crawfish tails.

So gather your family and head out to My Brother's Crawfish for some of the best tasting crawfish boil in Northwest!