Crawfish Boil

Ok folks, sorry Yumma Yumma has been a little absent for the last month, but things have been a little busy.  I needed a little time to recoop from Gray Kitty Boutique's Apple Blossom adventure, there were a few holidays and family birthdays, end f the school year,  a big party at our house yesterday...oh, and we've been busy getting our house ready to hopefully try to move this summer.  So needless to say there hasn't been a whole lot of time for many new food adventures.  However, I do have a couple I'd like to share with you.

This is a little story about some crawfish.  Once upon a time there was a quaint little restaurant in Leesburg, VA called the Cajun Experience (you may remember a previous blog post about them involving beignets and po'boys).  And every so often this little place would have a special event called a Crawfish Boil and invite all their friends to come out and visit.They would order hundreds, if not thousands, of little crawfish straight from Louisiana, have them delivered on a specific day, and serve them up fresh and hot that very afternoon to all the people in the land who RSVP'd. 

Superking and his Princess were so disappointed because they longed to try these succulent little creatures but alas!  Every time a crawfish boil was scheduled, they had other plans and couldn't make it.  "Some day", they sighed, "we will be able to attend this wonderful event."

this little guy was not too happy that he was about to get cooked up and eaten!

Then one day the decree went forth that another crawfish boil was scheduled and all were invited to attend. And this was possibly the last one of the season! Lo and behold, it was a day that Superking and his Princess had nothing else scheduled!  "Let's go!" said the Princess.  Superking heartily agreed and they sent their RSVP.  They were so excited and the day finally arrived.  It was a very hot day and the event took place outside but thankfully the restaurant provided a few umbrellas for people to sit under.

The crawfish was served in a large aluminum tray.  It seemed as though hundreds of the beautiful red creatures filled the tray along with corn on the cob and wonderful potatoes that had soaked in a little of the cajun seasoning.  This was the Princess's first time eating crawfish so Superking had to show her how it was done. With a quick twist the head popped off the body and they sucked the juice out before proceeding to tear the shell off the rest of it to get to the juicy pink meat of the tail.

They were hot and spicy and oh so tasty! Superking and the Princess ate and ate and ate until they could eat no more crawfish!!  But just before they left to return to their castle, they had to get one more treat for the road...soft, warm, sugary, doughy beignets!!

And they lived happily ever after...or at least for that afternoon!

Cajun Experience

Superking has been craving crawfish.  But where can we go to find them?  Cajun Experience in downtown Leesburg VA. Downtown Leesburg is a quaint little area with lots of antiques, boutiques, and unique eats. Theres even an old-timey movie theater called the Tally-Ho.  If you're looking for parking, it may be difficult to find it on the streets but there are a couple garages which are free on the weekends. Even on the weekdays its not expensive. I once parked there for over 2 hours and had to pay a whole $1!!

Cajun Experience: Loudoun St Leesburg

Anyway, I digress.  Cajun food is not something you see a lot of here in the suburbs of Northern Virginia.  But if you get the craving and don't want to go all the way to New Orleans, the Cajun Experience is the place to go.  A quaint, cozy atmosphere with delicious authentic food with offerings such as a fried oyster bowl, crawfish mac'n cheese, and seafood gumbo...cuisine that sticks to your belly and makes you feel at home.

Their specialty of course is their Po'Boys.  I had the shrimp po'boy and Superking had the oyster po'boy.  Fried juicy seafood piled high on top of a special bread called the Leidenheimer roll, apparently a tradition in New Orleans.  Leidenheimer bread was originally baked by a German guy who migrated to New Orleans and began baking it in a French bread style.  Its crispy on the outside but soft on the inside similar to a French baguette.

shrimp po'boy

oyster po'boy...doesn't look much different than the shrimp one

The po'boys also come topped with a spicy chipotle sauce, ketchup, lettuce, and tomato. The ketchup seemed an odd addition to me at first but the acidity and sweetness of it worked well to balance out the spicy creaminess of the chipotle sauce.  Then with the crisp lettuce and fresh tomato, it all came together for the perfect Cajun po'boy. And it was also served with some crispy salty potato chips that seemed freshly home-made.

We did get an appetizer before our po'boys which I would be completely remiss to forget.  The hush puppies.  Oh the hush puppies.  Normally I'm not a huge fan of hush puppies because in most other restaurants they are dry and kind of bland and very uninteresting.  But these at the Cajun Experience were nothing like that at all.  Quite the contrary.  Very crisp on the outside (almost too crisp at first) but the inside was so soft and buttery like a home-made corn bread! I've never tasted hush puppies that good.

Of course we couldn't leave there without ordering a dessert to-go.  Hmm, what mysterious sweet delight could this brown paper bag hold?? 

Beignets of course!! Mmmm, beignets...sweet pillowy layers of fried dough smothered in mountains of powdered sugar.  Their warmth is radiating through the bag on the way home.  I'm still so full from lunch but I have to have a bite while its still fresh and hot.  My mouth is burning a little and there is sugar everywhere but it doesn't matter. Once you taste that beignet, its like the windows of heaven have opened up and the angels are singing the Hallelujah Chorus. 

Ok maybe thats a bit much but those beignets were darn good! We felt as though we truly had an authentic Cajun Experience there.  Can't wait to go back and try that crawfish mac'n cheese!!