A crawfish boil is sacks of live Louisiana mudbugs boiled with corn, potatoes, lemon, garlic and a Cajun spice mix, then dumped onto newspaper-lined tables in pyramid heaps. Peel-and-eat, no plates.

The crawfish boil came out of Acadian Louisiana's bayou country in the 19th century, when Cajun fishermen pulled freshwater crawfish from the swamp and boiled them in cast-iron pots over open flame. The dish moved into commercial restaurants by the 1950s; Peche Seafood Grill, Cochon and Acme Oyster House run seasonal boil menus from January through July, peaking March through May. Louisiana now harvests 90 to 100 million pounds of crawfish a year. The tabletop-dump-and-peel ritual is half the experience; the rule is no plates, no forks, only paper towels and beer.

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