re: The "Viet Cajun" Crawfish Craze

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you are still putting it on heat to get a crust at the end.

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Your comparison doesn't make sense. Both ways of cooking crawfish involve boiling, just like your steaks need "heat to get a crust at the end." The difference is the method of seasoning the meat, which vary widely whether you are cooking a steak or boiling crawfish. Some people only add a little olive oil and salt and pepper to their steak. Some marinate theirs overnight. For crawfish, some people soak them in the spicy water, some people put them in an ice chest with the dry spices (Gasp!) and let it sit, and the Viet style boils in plain water and tosses the shells in a sauce.

If you really wanted to use the steak analogy, you'd ask "do you grill your steak with no spice then toss it in a sauce after its done?"

Side question to anyone who's had stuff from the good viet-cajun places...are they open all year? If it's out of season, just exactly where are the crawfish coming from?