The yabbies you see in the photo above were rescued from our car this evening. And no, we're not underwater here, or staving off floods, these guys were invited into our vehicle of our own free will.
We'd purchased a kilo of these fine beasts, and after a roundabout trip home were ready to throw them in a pot of boiling water to see what all the fuss is about. You see, these yabbies we think, are the same as Lousianna crawdads, and that thought alone had our mouths watering at the hint of dinner. The plan was a big hint of chilli, some tomato, a hot walk in the wok before being served on a bed of steamed rice.
Unbeknownst to us, while we were away from the car for a little while, these plucky buggers had broken free from their wrapping and were making tracks around the underbelly of our car. Through a plastic bag, some newspaper, and then another bag...these guys were earnest in their pursuit of freedom. In the dark we had no inkling that anything untoward had happened to our fish shop purchase...all seemed right with the world as we made our merry way home.
Happy's hearing is at times appalling (usually when I'm talking) and at other times amazing (usually when I'm not). So as we're driving along, he's going 'what is that nip nip nip sound I hear?'. I'm all 'go back to sleep, there's no nip nip nip noise' and can honestly say I didn't hear a thing.
Turns out, nip nip nip was our dinner tromping around under the seats of our car, and looking for new homes to roost in. It wasn't until we were in the kitchen assessing our booty that we discovered we were short half a kilo of our fine crawdads.
We found the blinking things everywhere! In the shoes we leave in the car, under seats, in jumpers, tissue boxes...you name it. They didn't leave a stone or shoe unturned in their pursuit of freedom. If freedom fighters they were, I would commend their creativity, however, please never put me on a team run by crawdads. I do not wish to end my days in Happy's shoe! Where on earth did these crawdads think they were heading anyway?
A few died in the freedom skirmish, so we quickly cremated (boiled) them and I gotta say, as nice as each tiny bite of meat was, they will need to be less than $29 per kilo for us to buy more.
Just so you know, the photo above represents about half a kilo of yabbies. Happy's hands make the bootie look far smaller than it is in real life. The yabbies were about 6-8 inches long each...his hands are gigantuan! There's no meat to talk of in their claws, none to speak of in their heads and just a medium tiger prawn's worth in their body. Yes, I'll admit, it's lush and succulent...just figure though that each one is but a mouthful. Effort to mouth-profit is very low, which is not good unless you have just won the lottery.
I love this pic too, it captures his delight at an unexpected skirmish for food. Happy has the gift of enjoying every moment in this world and never looking back. I wish i could be the same way.
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