Has anyone had lobster-sized crawfish in the Houston area? (Howe: live in, land)

[Zhang Fei]

I'm just wondering whether they exist at all locally. I've had these while traveling through East Asia, where they appear on English-language menus as "crayfish", but haven't really looked for them elsewhere.

[Locmusai]

I think those are the crayfish I saw in Australia. Similar to shape but larger in size then our crawfish. I have not seen any in Houston.

[cheryjohns]

I have never seen them here. That would be great - now it seems like crawfish are negative calories - you burn more calories getting to that tiny bit of meat than is in the meat.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Zhang Fei

I'm just wondering whether they exist at all locally. I've had these while traveling through East Asia, where they appear on English-language menus as "crayfish", but haven't really looked for them elsewhere.

I think you are talking about prawns. we have them in the caribbean too

http://www.lukezine.com/images/market/CIMG0256.JPG (broken link)

[msgood85]

where do they have these in houston @htownlove

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

I think you are talking about prawns. we have them in the caribbean too

Actually, I'm talking about crawfish. Note the following specimen's size in relation to the dinner plate and the spring roll:

[piyf]

Holy crap that plate looks like something threw that up. Bottom left looks like a dinosaur fossil.

[karuna95]

Perspective I guess ... it looks delicious to me! And that's a lobster!!
Danieloneil01 - go to kim son and order the "cua rang muoi". If you like crab, you'll love that dish.

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by karuna95

Perspective I guess ... it looks delicious to me! And that's a lobster!!

Like I said, it's a lobster-sized crawfish. Here's what one of the babies looks like in relation to an adult hand:



Here's an excerpt about this crawfish:

When it was discovered that freshwater crayfish from the land “down under” grew to over a pound, aquaculturists in the United States got excited. Dubbed “freshwater lobsters,” these Australian crayfish have received a great deal of media attention. Today Australian crayfish are reportedly farmed not only in Australia but in New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and the United States.

Based on that excerpt, my best guess is that maybe it's called freshwater lobster stateside, or simply sold as lobsters without any qualification. I would tend to doubt the latter, since the large crawfish taste just like the little ones from Louisiana, with a kind of muddy undertone that's unlike the taste of salt water lobsters.

[houstonfan]

From what I remember in biology class (and that was a looong time ago so lol), crayfish and crawfish are the same thing but there are different species so they present in different shapes and sizes. However, they are different from lobsters in that lobsters live in ocean and crawfish/crayfish live in fresh water (ie rice paddy). Lobsters are also typically much larger than crayfish.
So what you;re looking for is some type of crawfish/crayfish.