Wednesday 15 June 2011

Crayfish Bob

It's not often you hear of a business plan that consists of trying to sell out of produce and, therefore, putting you out of business. But that's what Crayfish Bob is doing; trying to eradicate the American Signal crayfish from the Thames and other UK waterways as they are wiping out our native White Claws. You can read more about it here - I particularly like Bob's bio.

Crayfish Bob, in conjunction with Two Degrees is currently holding a pop-up; artist Clare Patey along with Blanch & Shock worked with them to create the dining experience and I attended as a guest of theirs. For £5, you sit at shared tables outside in the lovely Toynbee Studios, the garden space of Toynbee Hall. Bread with butter is warm and moreish, and I slathered a load of hemp mayonnaise for a full fat mouthful.

After a quick speech about Bob's intentions, we were instructed to form an orderly queue and Bob plopped some meaty, bright orange specimens on my plate. Viscera flew about the place as claws were ripped off, crayfish heads sucked and sweet, fleshy tails were dipped in mayonnaise. Big bowls of salad with wild leaves, such as common hogweed and borage were stunning and delicious; astringent stalks mingled with sweet leaves. We washed this down with a glass of rosé, reportedly made from grapes grown in Tooting.


Finally, a elderflower pannacotta with strawberries and butterscotch was a highlight - I couldn't get enough of the rich, sweet butterscotch. Dusk settled and off I waddled, pleased as punch to have been doing my bit of ridding the waters of this pest.


The pop up is, understandably sold out (for £5, it really was a total bargain) but I believe Crayfish Bob is will soon be smoking and selling his delicious crayfish. Watch this space...

More photos HERE.

10 comments:

Kavey said...

I just read about Crayfish Bob on Spitalfields Life. I love his dedication to eradicating the invading American crayfish, the pop up sounds great. And bloody FANTASTIC value.

Hanna @ Swedish Meatball said...

New levels of jealousy... this sounds INCREDIBLE. Bringing an important issue to light; had a good read on his website and it seems he is doing great things!

PDH said...

Bugger, I got invited to this and forgot all about it... Luckily I've quite a lot of Crayfish recently so I'm not too jealous :^P

Chris Pople said...

This looks ACE! I'm definitely going to the next thing he organises. Love crayfish.

meemalee said...

Man, I would have loved to have gone to this.

People - I LOVE SEAFOOD *cries*

Holly - Hungry as a bear said...

What a great idea...would have loved to go to this, crayfish are one of my faves!

I considered going on a crayfish-catching expedition to get some of the little blighters for myself, but unfortunately its not allowed around where I live (apparently there are still a lot of the native crayfish about, and the local EA don't want to risk people catching the wrong type.)

*Sigh*

Food Urchin said...

Great idea. Do you think if I take my crayfish net down there then Crayfish Bob will tell me how to use the damn thing?

Jonathan said...

Awesome idea. Definitely the best pop up idea for quite some time.

Katy Salter @ Pinch of Salt said...

oh this sounds so cool - wish I'd got there in time. Bob looks like a proper London character too.

Su-Lin said...

Gah, I missed this! Been wanting to eat clear the Thames of crayfish for a while. Can't wait to find out where else he'll be selling them.