"Co-owner Julie Duong says the Viet-Cajun spot began selling a limited amount of crawfish in November from a trusted purveyor’s test harvests, moved to more consistent mid-December deliveries, and is currently selling crawfish for around $12 per pound with expectations that prices will fall. She highlights customer eagerness: “They missed it so much, they want to get their fix in.” Duong also explains early-season quality issues: farmers sometimes catch leftover crawfish that are still alive from the previous year, resulting in “hollow tails,” described as “insides of malnourished crawfish that appear dark and often yield little meat,” which she says is a sign of dormancy and malnourishment rather than cooking dead." - Brittany Britto Garley