Photo Views from Crawfish Festival at Park Square at FishHawk Ranch

Cajun was in at Park Square in Lithia, where the third annual Crawfish Festival at FishHawk Ranch was held Saturday, May 18, hosted by the FishHawk Riverview Rotary Club.

What has become a signature event for the local Rotarians again drew vendors and attendeeds in large numbers for a sampling of "pond-to-park" crawfish "straight out of a swamp in Louisiana," as head chef and Rotarian Michael Broussard put it.

• See

Broussard has been cooking crawfish every year for th three years of the annual event, which draws more than 1,000 people to FishHawk in May.

• See 5 Questions With Michael Broussard About His Award-Winning Crawfish

Broussard's job is to cook the crawfish — which comes from a wholesale company his high school classmate owns — and for that the Rotarian is well-suited.

"My wife's from Albuquerque and I'm from Louisiana," Broussard said. "A blend of spices from Albuquerque combined with spices from Louisiana and you can't go wrong."

On the menu May 18 at FishHawk was chicken and sausage gumbo, red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee, hot dogs and hamburgers, nachos and other kid-friendly food. This year, a new take on crawfish was offered as well.

• See Deep Into Crawfish With the Rotarians

The FishHawk Riverview Rotary Club meets weekly on Mondays at noon at Beef 'O' Brady's in Valrico, at 4330 Bell Shoals Road.