I am eating in a Japanese buffet as we speak, so to speak, an ALL YOU CAN EAT place, and i am discovering my body’s capacity for peel- and- eat shrimp. It’s surprisingly high.
Sloppy eating is a feature, not a bug. Leave that roll of paper towels right on the table, please.
Mildly sloppy eating for a worthwhile return (barbecued ribs come to mind) is fine. Peel-and-eat shrimp, not so much.
Spoken like someone unfamiliar with the glory of North Carolina shrimp.
My dad did that. My sisters and I thought it was gross. I recently found out that my nephew does too.
Let’s hear it for Mediterranean (Greek Islands) and Atlantic (Normandy, Brittany) shrimp too.
And if you’re putting sauce on a shrimp, you need better shrimp.
j
Absolutely re: the other shrimp–I dunno everywhere that’s delicious, but I know good North Carolina shrimp is.
But a good sauce can complement the briny sweetness, and I ain’t giving up my lemon butter and my cocktail sauce.
I like Chinese salt and pepper shrimp where the shell is fried enough that it just becomes a part of the crunchy coating.
Ha, I was going to post about how I heard Neil DeGrasse Tyson say once that he liked to eat shrimp with the shells on, but I wanted to google it to get my facts straight, and look what I found. Looks like both the OP and I have been carapace-challenged for awhile now (I made a few posts in this thread I hardly remember):
Yes! They’re intended to be eaten. I twist off the heads first, although I understand many Chinese eat them.
I sometimes eat the shells, especially if they are cooked enough to be crispy. But even when i don’t, i don’t find them very difficult. I usually grasp the tail with my fingers, and then grasp the flesh of the shrimp with my teeth, and pull gently to remove the shell. A tiny bit of meat remain in the tail, but not much.
I will happily eat boiled lobster, but only at home as I dismember them so thoroughly I get every last scrap of meat out, even from the knuckles, legs, claw thumbs, and tail flukes, all dipped in melted butter. It’s a gloriously messy process that I would not inflict on observers.
The knuckle meat is the best.
I don’t even use butter, I love lobster.
Correct, again. This is why you were un-pitted. You answered the “What’s the point.”
Sometimes good food is manual. I grew up in Maryland and am now in FL. The shrimp I can get now in FL are FRESH. 99% of shrimp are flash frozen to ship to other places. When you can get fresh shrimp, it’s a huge difference.
Blue crabs steamed MD style are inimitable anywhere— caked with crab seasoning (not old bay), and sweet, but you do need potato salad or lots of beer to help fill up if you’re really hungry. I can get through a half dozen crabs (pulling out the jumbo lumps & all) in a couple minutes if I’m anti-social. Crab feasts are more about eating crabs and being social and seeing who can pluck out the biggest jumbo lump. And real, steamed blue crab bought by the dozen (or bushel) in paper grocery bags, & crab cakes.
I miss crabs more than I like the shrimp in FL. They don’t do crabs in FL like MD. I don’t like FL…but that’s for another forum.
As a kid in Maryland, I loved peeling and eating shrimp. The peeling was part of the ritual and shrimp was rare enough for me that the peeling was worth the reward. Nowadays, I never get peel and eat shrimp because it’s not worth the effort for the crappy shrimp one is liable to be served.
Like Solost, what annoys me is when you get tail-on shrimp mixed into a dish. I have to fish them out of the fra diavolo sauce or jambalaya to take the tail off instead of just enjoying the meal.
I get the impression a lot of Dopers don’t realize how much flavor the shells impart to the dish. They’re a feature!
Is there a way to use them as a boquet garni, at least for a boil, or do they need to be touching the shrimp flesh during cooking?
One could peel the shrimp first and make a stock with the shells, then add the stock to the dish (some dishes are done exactly that way) but you are correct, the shrimp themselves won’t be as flavorful that way.
Even when we make a dish with whole unshelled shrimp we save the shells from each meal for stock. A few shrimp shells can generate an amazing amount of really delicious rich stock.
Once I learned how to peel them with a knife and fork, they became much less annoying. But I would still prefer it if the cook would peel them.
I love and eat all of the lobster too, and I enjoy breaking it all open and glorying in the mess as well. Once I ordered a live lobster from Red Lonster and the waiter said “we’ll pre-crack it for you”. I said no, bring me the intact whole lobster and a cracker. I didn’t trust them to not remove the legs or some other part I’d miss, or screw it up somehow with the prep work. The waiter actually had to bring the manager out to the table to make sure I knew that’s what I really wanted.
I love the tomalley, the green stuff under the carapace. I like to spin steamed asparagus spears in the tomalley- it’s like lobster-flavored butter.
You don’t eat the shells in that case, I hope 