Live crawfish boiled by the sackful in fiercely seasoned water with potatoes, corn and sausage, then tipped out onto the table.
Crawfish were eaten from the swamps long before they were farmed; now much of the harvest comes from ponds flooded after the rice crop, in rotation with it. The season runs roughly from late winter into early summer, and a boil is how it's celebrated — outdoors, with friends, in a pot on a propane burner.
The crawfish boil briefly, then soak in the spiced water to take up the seasoning. Everyone stands round the table peeling tails and, if they're doing it properly, sucking the heads.