The Southern Thing: Weekend Festin'

This weekend started off exactly as I called it on Friday- with happy hour chips and queso. Chris and I headed to Chuy's to take advantage of their happy hour where they have a free nacho bar, filled with unlimited chips, salsa, refried beans, and queso. All the queso you want. Fo free. How could you pass that up!?

Saturday I was craving crawfish and figured it was time I finally gave Dallas crawfish a chance. I've never heard anything good about the crawfish here in Dallas from any of my Louisiana native friends living here, and I can tell good crawfish just by the smell of them and that's never happened in Dallas, but I still had to taste it for myself. We decided to go to Dodie's, a cajun restaurant we often frequent in Dallas, but this time we opted for their waterfront location on Lake Ray Hubbard in Rockwall. Most of their food is good and I figured if anyone would get it right, it would be them.

It was a beautiful day to sit by the lake. The weather could not have been more perfect! Once we arrived, we were greeted with $6+/lb crawfish prices, nearly triple what we'd pay back home this time of year, but that's the sacrifice we make for leaving. The thing with crawfish and Louisiana people is that 1 pound is not nearly enough. Neither is 2. Or 3. Or 4. Or heck, even 5. When we eat them, we eat them and don't stop. Anything under 5 pounds of crawfish is just a tease.

I did what I had never done before in my life and ordered 1 pound, as a taste test per say. I was disappointed to say the least. I gave it another try and ordered one more pound hoping maybe they would come from a new batch, but all hope was lost. Something is just off with how they boil crawfish out here. Every place I've seen serve crawfish does the same thing- over seasons the outside shells of the crawfish, and in this case, doesn't do anything for the inside. I may just secretly leave a box of crawfish boil next time I visit and tell them to have at it. To answer the question I've been wondering ever since I got here, in Louisiana language, Dallas crawfish was like eating bland crawfish seasoned with Tony's on the shell with no juice. That's enough right there for any native to lose their Louisiana card. And that my friends is why it's taken me, the self proclaimed crawfish queen, this long to give them a try in Texas. I don't mean to sound like such a harsh hater, but geez, can't a girl just satisfy her crawfish cravings once and for all!? Good thing a plate of pasta monica (their take on New Orleans Jazz Fest's famous crawfish monica) came out right behind it. That's one dish you can never go wrong with!

We somehow ended up in line for ice cream at Cold Stone, even though we were so full, and we still nearly devoured an entire waffle bowl. It was like a race to see who would win- me or the sun melting the ice cream. For the record, the sun won, but it was good while it was frozen!

On Sunday we ventured off to Fort Worth to check out their Mayfest. Right as we were trying to pay to park, we were told the car in front of us had already paid for our parking. We're thinking it was their way of saying thanks for us letting them over when the traffic was bad earlier, but that was very kind of them and made me so happy to see kind people still exist.

Once we got to the gate of the festival, we headed straight to the line to buy tickets to get in. As we were standing in line, a guy walked up to us and gave us two free tickets to get into the fest. That's when I declared it official pay it forward day. Two random acts of kindness back to back!? I can't wait to pay it forward this week and make someone's day just as these random kind strangers did for ours.