Margaritas, Mudbugs, and Muffelattas

I'm kind of an old dog.

It's difficult to teach me new tricks, convince me to try new things, and make me believe that the Habanero pepper sauce is just "sorta warm".

I can't help it.
I'm naturally a scaredy cat  chicken  yellow cautious.
I don't just jump into things without thinking about them for awhile.
Like for years.
And years.

But- one of my unwritten private crazy resolutions for 2012 was to loosen up, become adventurous, take a leap of faith...

Obviously I'm not about to start taking up hang gliding, scuba diving or wearing Spandex.
You won't talk me into bungy-jumping, race car driving, or wearing a bikini. 
Because, face it -Some things simply aren't physically or morally possible for me.

Or even possible to consider without causing me to throw up a little.

However, I stepped out of my comfort zone this weekend and have lived to tell about it.
Yay.

A group of friends and family made reservations at the Broadway Oyster Bar in downtown St. Louis (one block from the Cardinal Stadium). Luckily we got a great front table that gave us perfect seats to hear and see the acoustic guitar player on stage.

Broadway Oyster Bar, St. Louis

This little hodge-podge building had uneven floors, tiny bathrooms, wooden benches and questionable graffiti - but it more than made up for it in character, delicious food and an atmosphere that made you just wanna dance. (After a few margaritas, of course!)

I sat next to my new daughter-in-laws mother, Lori, and she's a hoot.
We always seem to have a good time together.
(And please don't ask either one of us to change up our favorite drink- the Margarita - because that would be like asking us to get a tattoo- which we would never, ever do- and something we actually agreed upon over dinner. )

But, instead of ordering my typical dining choice of chicken strips or fish and chips, I opted for the garlic Cajun shrimp Alfredo, which was a bit spicy, but yummy.
Some dummy crazy person   brave soul in our party ordered a platter of crawdads (or mud bugs) and we all started cracking tails and licking our fingers and ordering another round of drinks.
And there was a large Muffelatta (Cajun club sandwich) for everyone to sample.
I love these.

It's been 25 years since I had a crawdad- and, like I said, I'm an old dog.
I was a bit wary about starting up an almost disgusting and unnecessary food habit. But, I remembered my leap of faith promise.
And the crawdads were actually pretty good.

Next, the waitress brings us a giant plate of ...alligator!
I admit this was pushing my limits. (Especially after watching every new episode of Crocodile Hunters).
But, I thought it was delicious! A little tough in some parts, but it had a good flavor, and I ate it because I wanted to write this blog about it I wanted to explore the unknown world of Cajun cuisine.


A margarita Two Three Four margaritas and three hours later, the laughing bunch of us were finally asked by the nice waitress if we were leaving soon- because there was a mob tribe group of starving people waiting for our table. (oops!- we were oblivious to anyone else in the room)...

Safely home- I thought a lot about baby steps, new territory, awesome new experiences and acts of bravery.
It may have just been crawdads and alligator this time- but who knows?
Tomorrow it might be roller skating and escargot...

And someday soon the whole world will be asking-
"Who let the dogs out?"