re: Question: The Quality of Crawfish in NOLA

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They aren't, I can drive to restaurant depot and buy crawfish cheaper than I can buy them wholesale here. Restaurants down there put so much pressure on distributors to sell them cheap they just say frick it and buy cheaper crawfish. It's why I've never tried to get into the New Orleans market

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Interesting.

There are a lot of Asian markets in New Orleans and they used to beat us up when we were selling them all other seafood but crawfish (IQF shrimp, fresh shrimp, crabmeat,etc.). Also, a lot of local markets who are used to everybody and their grandma trying to sell them. Makes it a very competitive market.

A lot of them will play games with you to. They may be buying crawfish for $1.50/lb but they won't buy from someone new unless you drop significantly lower (say $1.25/lb). They may be buying at $1.50/lb but they may tell you they are buying at $1/lb. Makes it hard to know what is true.

Restaurant depot is hard on their suppliers. I should know, I worked there for a year. The quality we were getting there wasn't always the greatest (looked like they were mixing in peelers) either. My buyer wanted them cheap though.

When it comes to size and freshness of the crawfish, it makes sense that the closer you get to where they were caught, the fresher they will be, and probably the fewer times they change hands.

However, I can not stand the "boil in tap water, dump Tony's on top" that I seem to find all over Acadiana.

I can't tell you the last time I ordered boiled crawfish in a sit down place. I sometimes buy boiled crawfish from a seafood market.