Crawfish, Crayfish, Crawdaddy - where will I find tail meat in Los Angeles?

May 27, 2011 2:22 PM

I'm feelin' some etouffée, but I'm tired of faking it with shrimp. Retail seafood markets are few and far between. Where can I find crawfish tail meat (even frozen and/or Chinese) in Los Angeles, the closer to the San Fernando Valley the better?
posted by DandyRandy to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

If it's anywhere, I bet it's at Fish King in Glendale, just off the 134. Their website says "Crawfish live or cooked" but I'd call, as their selection varies and their staff really know their stuff. Their selection of crab, lobster, scallops etc is always great and super fresh. It's where we buy our sushi fish too btw.
posted by crabintheocean at 2:33 PM on May 27, 2011

How close to crawfish are langoustine?
I've found cooked frozen langoustine tails at Trader Joe's.
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 3:10 PM on May 27, 2011

If you're willing to be really ambitious, throw a crawfish boil and use the leftover tails. You can get live crawfish airmailed from Louisiana for less than you would expect. The folks at the Louisiana Crawfish Company were incredibly helpful for mine.
posted by jander03 at 3:29 PM on May 27, 2011

Response by poster: Actually, it was a crawfish boil at Les Sisters in Chatsworth that got me in the mood. I bought a pound of whole crawfish; it took forever to drill down to the meat, and a pound of whole crawdaddies equals maybe a half cup o' tail. Too much work, even with my hands covered in all that romance.
posted by DandyRandy at 4:25 PM on May 27, 2011

2nding Prince_of_Cups's suggestion of the Trader Joe's langoustine tails. Those things are delicious.
posted by abirae at 5:47 PM on May 27, 2011

I've seen it lots at Whole Foods here in New York - maybe give them a try?

(BTW Langoustine look a lot like crawfish to me, and I'm a crawfish eater basically from the womb.)
posted by Sara C. at 6:23 PM on May 27, 2011

Langoustine are basically salt-water crawfish with a fancier name...I can't taste a massive difference between them.

I've definitely seen them at Whole Foods as well (Bay Area, CA).
posted by guster4lovers at 1:13 PM on May 28, 2011