Season 4 of Dining on a Dime hosted by Lucas Peterson kicks off right now. For the next eight episodes, Peterson will be exploring the many diverse and outstanding cuisines that Austin, Texas and its immediate surroundings have to offer.
This season starts in a somewhat counterintuitive way — don’t worry, we’ll get to the barbecue soon enough — with a tradition that is certainly Southern, but that has its roots in Louisiana as opposed to Texas: a crawfish boil.
Whether you call them crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, or mud bugs, these freshwater crustaceans have been an integral part of the cuisine and social life of the bayou since Native Americans and European settlers lived in the area centuries ago.
Peterson heads to St. Roch’s Bar on Pedernales in East Austin to get a lesson from a New Orleans native on the art of the seafood boil. With that comes an additional task: learning the tricky and messy technique of peeling and extracting the delicate meat.
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