once again, i ordered a pasta dish last night that had shrimp in it and they left the tail shells on the shrimp.
why do they do this? i have to pick them up and get sauce all over my fingers to take the shells off so i can eat. shrimp pasta dishes are almost always served this way. do chefs like sticking their fingers in the linguini when they eat? wtf?
does anyone prefer shrimp served with the tail shells in pasta?
that’s one of my pet peeves. It’s semi ok with shrimp cocktail and fried shrimp but totally wrong wrong wrong with pasta and sauces. yeck. I’m with you on this.
Where do you live? Maybe it is a regional thing. I have never had shrimp pasta with the tails on. I would hate it too though.
Michigan, but have had the tails left on in chain restaurants as well as local ones (like Olive Garden, Red Lobster etc.)
I find it annoying, too. But one little etiquette tip: You’re not supposed to pick them up and get sauce on your hands. You’re supposed to hold the shrimp down with your fork and slide (or cut) the tail shell off with your knife.
The shrimp lose much flavor and dry out if cooked without shells, more so than you would think.
I suppose you could ask the chef to remove the shells after cooking, but that would be nasty.
if that is the intended procedure, then the shrimp should be served to one side so i can do the necessary pre-meal prep. don’t mix them in with the pasta so i have to dig through and find each one and cut the tails off before i start eating. and i don’t like to stop and prep on the fly as i encounter each shrimp - part of the fun of a seafood pasta dish is the spontaneity of random forkfuls containing different types of seafood interlaced with the pasta.
I always make a mess trying to eat the shrimp when they do this. Maybe Chef Troy will know. 
Why would leaving just the shell on the tail end of the shrimp help keep it from drying out though? 
<b>zwaldd,</b>
so ask for your shrimp on the side next time. I’m not arguing with you that it’s totally stupid to leave the tails on when the shrimp is mixed in with pasta and sauce, but if that’s the way the restaurant does it, then please, for the sake of you fellow diners, use the fork method rather than sticking your hands into your food.
Also, try a better restaurant. If the shrimp are of decent size, it’s really not at all difficult to spot them and shell them. At a better restaurant (as opposed to Mom & Pop’s seafood trough), the shrimp should be larger and there will only be a few in the dish anyway.
lucky - thanks for the advice. you’ve raised some issues that i hadn’t considered. can you recommend a better restaurant? the one last night was ‘asti’ in austin, tx on duval.
I guess I misread the OP. This wouldn’t make any difference at all. Probably they are leaving you something to hold on to??
I hate this practice. I also hate it when they cook whole shimp, shell, legs, and all and put lots of delicious sauce on the shell. What are you supposed to do with that?
Leaving the shells on stinks. It’s just laziness on the part of the chef/preparer, IMO. Shrimp should be peeled and “deveined” (there’s a thread on that somewhere but I can’t find it now.) Other than “peel and eat shrimp” I can’t think of any dish where the shells should be left on.
I ordered shrimp fajitas once in a somewhat pricey mexican restaurant, and I got the shrimp back whole and unpeeled. What the @#%$ am I supposed to do, use my bare hands to unpeel the red hot shrimp that are sitting there smoking on the cast iron fajita plate? (Never going back there, that’s for sure.)
i would’ve sent that crap back to the kitchen. only once did i think to ask that they take the shells off when i ordered and they did comply. this was at a place in houston. hopefully after this discussion i’ll remember to ask more often.
and
Well… There’s “salt and pepper shrimp” at Chinese restaurants. They are cooked whole with the head, legs, eyes, etc. You don’t peel them because all of the seasoning is on the outside. It is intended that you eat the crispy-cooked shell. I usually eat the head first, as I like the taste of the tails better. It’s also good with the sliced jalapenos (or the Chinese analog) they serve with it.
I don’t mess around with the shells and tails…just eat ‘em, and kwitcherbitchin’!
At one Chinese restaurant I used to frequent, I asked the same question regarding shrimp (tails on) served deep fried in tempura-style batter. The cook said “Without the tail shell left on it it would look like a white slug. Who would want to eat that?” I explained that I knew perfectly well the difference between a cooked shrimp and a slug, that the batter disguised the appearance of the shrimp meat anyway, and that I would would prefer to not have to deal with the shells during the course of my meal. She didn’t seem convinced, giving me that “Poor misguided fool” look.
This is the same restaurant that, when the cook ran into the dining area to announce that the kitchen was on fire and that everyone had to evacuate, I took my plate and chopsticks with me and watched the excitement from the parking lot – the food was that good. When they reopened I was a much-appreciated regular. They’d point me out to other customers and tell them when the building caught on fire I wouldn’t leave without my sweet-and-sour shrimp. It was very good!
~~Baloo
That expensive Mexican restaurant served those shrimp as they would have been served in Mexico–whole. As far as I know, the US is one of the few countries that seems to want its shrimp completely peeled.
The there are several reasons why the tails are left on:
You don’t have to eat them–even though I may cook with them on, I still pull the tails off when I eat them. It never hurts to ask your server if the chef doesn’t mind taking the tails off. More often than not, a chef will do it gladly (unless you’re in a place like Red Lobster, where the most of the entrées come pre-prepared from a central kitchen, and your meal is microwaved to your order).
That’s what I get for posting after my bedtime. :rolleyes:
Hell, I’ve been eating the tails since I first ate shrimp. It’s no big deal, just crunchy. I went to a local sushi place where, if you ordered ebi (shrimp) he would serve you the tail section, and then deep fry the rest and serve you THAT as well. Quite tasty, actually.