I don’t usually eat the shells if the shrimp are steamed, but if they are fried, and the shelf are crunchy, i often do. I like food that fights back.
Sometimes, when I’m hungry, after eating the steamed shrimp I’ll go back and eat the tails, but i know I’m not supposed to, so i try to do it discretely. I kinda like the tails, though.
I’ve never eaten shrimp heads. They are rarely served with the heads around here. But the head squicks me out a little. I eat more of a lobster than most people, but don’t chew on the heads.
I’m Chinese-American and I’ve watched some of my relatives eat the shells my entire life. Tails, little legs and feet, whatever; if it was still attached to the thing, they ate it. Mostly the older people who were “closer to China” than the rest of us. I never understood. I always peeled mine like the rest of my cousins.
Maybe the shrimp are different in China. Or maybe they just lived hard lives and don’t give a fuck. I don’t know, I never asked them.
I really want to like soft shelled crab, but I just don’t. It looks so appealing, but the shell is like crabby toenails. There’s a book I love to read that has a mention of soft shelled crab sandwiches that makes me want them every time. I know it’s pointless.
I have read shrimp heads can be great but no one has ever taught me how to do it. Eat them? Suck on them? Suck just the pot juice out or am I going for brains and whatnot?
No. Idea.
So I skip it.
FWIW I love shrimp almost any way shrimp is served.
“Shrimp heads” is kind of a misnomer. That’s not just their “brains,” it’s all of their internal organs except for the intestine, liquefied. It’s like you from the chest up.
Deep fried shrimp, I will crunch up and eat the part of the tail that has the last bit of meat in it, rather than fool around trying to extract that last part of meat.
As indicated upthread, it’s common in Asia. A Japanese friend told me it’s standard operating practice in his family/town.
I tried it a few times and found it to be similar to eating peanuts with the shells.
Some people are obsessed with sucking the heads, and most who aren’t have similarly strong feelings about using them for cooking. In some stock recipes, the first step is to sauté the heads, mashing down on them with a wooden spoon for maximum effect. I’ll admit it’s pretty tasty but IMO squeezing the goodness out of the guts of a bottom feeder doesn’t make much sense, at least not for regular consumption.
If you order ama ebi at a sushi bar, the raw shrimp comes with the deep fried shrimp heads. They are delicious, taste kind of like Fritos corn chips, crunchy not chewey.
I’ve seen a recipe for shrimp bisque in which you puree the shells. That sounds like it would be quite flavorful. But I don’t see how it wouldn’t be a little gritty. Like sand in my soup. But I’d try it at least once to see. And I too hate getting tail-on shrimp in dishes like marinara pasta or jambalaya. I always buy tail-off to avoid this in my own cooking.
There was a Vietnamese restaurant I frequented when our office was in Belltown. The bún đặc biệt had a whole prawn grilled on a skewer, I usually ate the head and thorax first (including the antennae). Then I’d eat the the of the tail with the shell, and then the tail proper.
Man, I loved Long Provincial Vietnamese. Alas, I no longer eat rice/noodles; and the restaurant is closed.
I wonder if the recipe strains them out through a sieve or chinois. Otherwise, like you, I would expect it to be gritty. It’s pretty standard, though, to save the shells and make a light stock out of them for the soup.
ETA: I could see a mortar-and-pestle pulverizing them into enough of a paste, as kayaker mentions.
I order this dish all the time. They come in pairs and the deep fried heads can be used as finger puppets to entertain your dinner companions before you eat them. I do a sort of Punch and Judy bit where if you’re aggressive enough the eyes fall out and roll around on the table.