Home | Directory | Contact | FAQ | Recipes | Restaurants | Vietnamese Recipes | 100 Vietnamese Foods | Subscribe

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Rockin' Crawfish - Westminster (Little Saigon)

As I mentioned in my C&C Express post, as my cousin was snacking on the hot vit lon (Vietnamese fetal or embryo duck eggs), we were headed off for appetizers before going to another place for dinner. This is after a quite full lunch at Brodard Restaurant. Yes, we're still talking about the same day. It just got stretched into three posts. :) We went across the street to the Asian Village Mall so the visitors could take pictures with Confucius and all his disciples at the Cultural Court, and so my brother's friend could stop off at the grocery store to look for fresh jackfruit. Unfortunately, they were out of jackfruit, but I scored 2 very fresh and very sweet Dole pineapples for only 88 cents each! My brother's friend also wanted to eat at one of the many Vietnamese-owned Cajun crawfish places that have opened up in Orange County in recent years. Does it make you feel like you're in a honky-tonk in the deep South? It's as bare bones as possible. Paper on the tables. Bibs for patrons. A whole roll of paper towels. The waitress even nicely went around tying the bibs on for all of us. Well, all except for one of my brother's friends who was kicking himself for sitting so far away that the waitress handed over a bib and asked him to tie it himself. :P The seafood usually goes for market price and on this particular night, the crawfish/crawdads/crayfish was $6.99 per pound. They were completely out of crab. And shrimp wasn't exotic enough for my cousin to try. My cousin had never had raw oysters before. So we ordered a dozen for $14.99. I have no idea what kind these were. We just squirted some limes, added some cocktail sauce, and they just slid down my throat. After two, my cousin decided she had had enough since she just wanted to try them to say she experienced it. The basket of calamari was nicely crispy, not heavily breaded, and only $5.99. We ordered two pounds of crawfish with mild seasoning. The choices are lemon pepper, garlic butter, and rockin' combo. The crawfish are served in a clear plastic bag, often with a few pieces of sausage or corn thrown in. One of my brother's friend's, who's from Mississippi, kept exclaiming that these prices were completely jacked up. Cajun crawfish places are cheap and ubiquitous in his neck of the woods. He said in Mississippi, fresh crawfish range from $1.50 to $2 a pound, and in Houston they're $2.50 to $3.99. Not that crawfish are only confined to the South, mind you. I've caught a few in my time. They're plentiful in rivers and streams in Oregon. We'd usually stop off on our way home from fishing along the coast. I'd tie a rib to a long stick, jab it under a crevice, wait until the crawfish grabbed a hold of the meat, and then I'd shake it into a bucket. If that didn't work, I'd scream for my brother to hurry over and grab it before it crawled away. Nothing beat fresh crawfish that I caught myself. My mom would boil them. Then it was time to eat. Ripping off the heads, sucking out any juices, bending the tail lengthwise to break the shell, before pulling out the tail. They were so delicious dipped into salt, pepper, and lime juice. So much work for so little meat. But it was sooo worth it. So succulent. Tastes like lobster to me. Eating these crawfish, even with the very strong Cajun spices, brought back some nice memories from my childhood. Oh, yes, back to the story, here's the "after" picture. After I left to wash my hands, our order of potatoes arrived. 50 cents each. I had totally forgotten about these. And actually, I wonder if the waitress had heard our request for mild because these were spicy! So spicy that two of my brother's friends literally had sweat running down their faces. So spicy that one of them peeled the skin from the potato and he was still sweating. Anyway, surely you didn't think we were done? Two pounds of crawfish, 1 dozen oysters, 1 basket of calamari, and 6 potatoes for six people? Nah, that was just the appetizer. :P We then moved on to Seol Ak San - Stanton for our real dinner. Nothing fills ya up like Korean barbecue with all the panchan (side dishes). Other Cajun crawfish restaurants: The Boiling Crab - Alhambra (Main St.) The Boiling Crab - Alhambra (Valley Blvd.) Rockin' Crawfish 9211 Bolsa Ave., Suite 120 Westminster, CA, 92683 714-894-4536 Monday to Thursday 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday 2 p.m. to midnight Sunday 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.

18 comments:

  1. crawfish has not been that cheap lately. we had bought some at christmas time already boiled and it was like $4.99 a pound. and just this past july 4th, my aunt brought some up to us from new orleans and i think it almost $4 a pound. i dont think i ever remember a time when crawfish was .99 cents a pound. but those prices for crawfish really arent too bad especially considering that you are in a restaurant and all eating it there. but everything always looks so yummy on your blog. cant wait to read the next entry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had no idea there were crawfish places in the OC. You always make me feel like I need to get out more!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The atmosphere of this place looks very cute with the little holiday lights and all. I've never had oysters either, for some reason or another, but that basket looks delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's weird they put the crawfish in plastic bags hehe. Did they cook the crawfish in the bags?

    ReplyDelete
  5. bluang3lbby,
    I've seen signs around Little Saigon where you can buy them fresh for $2.99/lb. So that's quite a mark-up. Nonetheless, I'm not sure how many people really fill up at these places. I think it's more for the beer. :)

    Marvin,
    There's a Boiling Crab that just opened up in Alhambra. That's a post coming in a few weeks. You do need to get out more!

    Kelly,
    Oysters are so cheap in Oregon, we used to buy them by the box!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jaded,
    The crawfish aren't boiled in the bags, just served that way. I think they just don't want to do the dishes! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! What a day! Although I'd understand how the crawfish wouldn't fill you up. After my last meal of crawfish at Boiling Crab, I went and got a burger.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's alot of food in one day!

    Ooh I love raw oysters! They have to be super fresh though...otherwise they just taste weird.

    ReplyDelete
  9. LOL! So this is a trend...eating dinner twice!!!

    I SO want some crawfish right now

    ReplyDelete
  10. LOL - glad you like RC my buddies own that place. I'll make sure they read this post.

    Ahem....MonaMi on corner of Euclid and Hazard sort of -s a buddy of mine too ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. There is a crawfish eatery called crawfishdad in Norcal too. Maybe I should give it a try :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. i am not sure how they are pricing it as low as $2.99. but beware there have been crawfish that are shipped over from china. which could be a possibilty why it is so much cheaper. because i have been looking at a place that sells crawfish from their farm and the cheapest price that is still fresh and not boiled is still running over $3.50 and that depends on how many pound you are ordering since they will ship it directly to you because that is the only way they are selling it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I've never tried crawfish, but I want to more than ever now. I also wish I were your cousin; she's lucky to have somebody like you to show her good and interesting eats.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Heh, maybe I should start serving my food in plastic bags. I HATE doing dishes with a passion.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Elmo,
    I could have filled up on crawfish, but it would probably take a pound of them for me alone!

    Jeannie,
    Well, of course, must stay away from bad oysters! They'll make you sick.

    Jaden,
    Next time you're in town, we can go here. We can do Korean bbq afterward too. And I don't think you've tried the fetal duck egg yet on your list of wacky foods? And that place as the snails in coconut milk I think you asked me about a while back?

    Bill,
    What does MonaMi have? More crawfish too?

    Tigerfish,
    I wonder if they get their crawfish from Sacramento instead up north?

    Bluang3lbby,
    Well, they say the crawfish are from Louisiana or Sacramento. I see them in the supermarket for that price too.

    Nobody,
    My cousin returns the favor when I visit her in Europe. :)

    Jaded,
    Make your husband do the dishes. Or use paper plates. :P

    ReplyDelete
  16. MonaMi is a french/vietnamese bistro type food. I love there bo ne - or sizzlin steak plate with a sunny side up egg - order it with pate on make sure the defibrillator is charged 100% ;-)

    They use quality fillet mignon on all of there meat dishes.

    I better stop.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Tania,
    I bet you can find calamari in Singapore. The ocean is all around you!

    Bill,
    I ate bo ne at least once a week for breakfast the summer I was in Vietnam. And it came with a pat of pate and some fries and a nice loaf of French bread.

    I'll keep this in mind if I'm down in OC.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by. I try to respond in a timely manner, but am not always able to do so. If you're awaiting a response, check the post in which the comment is made or click the "Notify me" option.

If you're not a blogger and you'd like to leave a comment, you can do so using your Google/Gmail account.

I welcome questions, discussions, and feedback, but please be mindful that this is my home online. I reserve the right to delete any comment that is anonymous or unknown, rude, promotional, or has a link.

Thank you for reading!