Suck it like the Swedes

Everyone knows crayfish are huge in Louisiana, but did you know that they're also big in Europe, and not just at Parisian crayfish parties where Kanye insists "that sh*t cray"? Swedes, actually, are the ones to get down on the crawdads, and now you can see how, at Charcoal's Swedish Crayfish Boil Party.The Golden Triangle's heavily lauded fine-diner has just released sure-to-sell-out tickets to this 5hr blowout, where the Swedes'll put those Southerners to shame with traditional herring, umlauts, shrimp salad/ deviled eggs, knäckebröd (see!... this is a hard bread, by the way), Swedish meatballs, and, of course, all-you-can-eat little critters. Here's how they do 'em in Sweden:

  • Crayfish parties celebrate the end of Summer, and see the little guys boiled in salt water, seasoned with dill, and served cold with dill sauce.
  • Sweden takes their cray so seriously that multiple Swedish publications not entirely devoted to crustaceans bother to rank the world's best sources, though "Swedish crayfish are always judged to be the best".
  • Despite the Swedes' association with army knives and their many utensils, you can and should eat these babies with your hands. Actually, it's "acceptable and customary to suck the juices noisily off the crayfish before shelling".
  • The celebrations are always outside, where people eat amidst festive paper lanterns that sometimes catch on fire (fun!). Pop songs are "rewritten to better fit in with the crayfish party spirit", but remember, these are freshwater creatures, so no Frank Ocean.
  • Things get pretty messy, so Charcoal will hook you up with cray bibs and wetnaps, but it's up to you to bring a "comical paper hat", should you want to ball so hard.