Boilin’ Crawfish
4
1679 86th St., 225-3622
Daily noon - 10 p.m. |
Boilin’ Crawfish 4
Zip codes can define restaurants.
One of the world’s best Vietnamese
restaurants (Thanh Long) began
humbly in a west San Francisco
neighborhood where its signature
dish of whole crab with garlic
noodles drew visitors from afar.
They expanded to a glitzier cafe
in the heart of downtown with
the same successful menu. Then
customers talked them into expanding
to Beverly Hills. Whole crab didn’t
sell in 90210 — it was too messy
for diners in that zip code. The
entire menu had to be revamped
to offer foods that didn’t involve
getting one’s fingers dirty. Today,
in Central Iowa, another Asian-American-owned
restaurant is testing whether
Clive has a San Francisco type,
or a Beverly Hills type personality.
Self-titled “Des Moines’ only
seafood sports bar,” Boilin’ Crawfish
4 is an enigma wrapped in a mysterious
plastic bag. The café sparkles
with wood, neon, high-def televisions
and friendly help. When I asked
what the number 4 was doing in
the restaurant’s name I was told
that it’s lucky in Chinese. When
I asked in what way, adding that
many Chinese avoid the number
4 because it’s associated with
death, I was told, “Yeah, but
it’s a divisible of 8 which means
prosperity. And mainly, it’s just
personal.” With that death-defying
attitude, this restaurant seeks
to turn Des Moines on to the hardcore
art of cracking crawfish shells.
Their signature dish, and one
of the just four on their menu,
is Cajun-spiced crawfish, boiled
whole in their shells and served
in a tied-off plastic bag, on
butcher paper with written instructions
for breaking the shells and extracting
edible flesh, organs and ovaries.
Crawfish were sold by the pound,
and one pound was the minimum
order. With just my fingers and
a fork, which I had to request,
it took me 30 minutes to break
open my pound of crawfish flesh.
Most claws were too small to yield
more than a sliver of meat. Even
some tails delivered disappointing
yields. Heads cut my hands as
often as they provided much fatty
meat, but their multiple flavors
and textures became an easily
acquired taste. Still, my pound,
with potatoes, cost $20 and left
me hungry. Plus, I can buy a pound
of crawfish tail meat at the supermarket
for $6 and it never cuts my fingers.
I am hardly a 90210-type diner,
so I figure this crawfish-centered
business plan works better after
heavier drinking than is my custom.
Part of the problem is just unlucky
timing. Recent hurricanes stressed
Gulf Coast crustaceans and larger
crawfish should become easier
to find in the future. So should
crab, one of the menu’s four items
that was unavailable in the first
three weeks after the sports bar
opened. I also tried a pound of
steamed clams, delicious in their
simplicity, served with cocktail
sauce, horseradish and bottled
lemon juice, or sliced lemons
on request. Oysters on the half
shell were bargain priced, at
$1 each for orders of a dozen
or more. I enjoyed some of the
biggest oysters I ever saw, identified
only as “from Oregon.”
Still a bit hungry after each
visit, I also stopped at nearby
King & I, which recently expanded
service to seven days a week and
added a sushi menu. That café
also installed a TV monitor that
ran a slide show of menu items
— an innovation that seems to
work in its zip code. I saw several
customers point to the screen
and order additional dishes. I
even became one of those customers.
Sushi featured popularized style
— with lots of local names (Hawkeyes
roll, etc.), drizzles of mayo,
cream cheeses and choices of seared
or raw fish.
Side dishes
The Ankeny Waterfront teaches
sushi class on Sunday, Oct. 19,
$75; 963-1940. … Greenbriar’s
five-course Harvest Moon dinner
on Friday, Oct. 10 ($40) pairs
exotic beers with seasonal delights
such as lacquered Iowa elk; 253-0124.
... Sage’s California wine dinner
($70) pairs four lesser-known
vineyards with lesser-known plates
like sweetbreads and snail pasta,
Wednesday, Oct. 15. CV
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