When I was a kid (20 years ago), my Dad would bring home fried shrimp dinners.
The shrimp were huge, about the size of hot dog (4” plus). There would also be plenty of restaurants offering “all you can eat” shrimp dinners, though not as huge they were still good sized.
It seems to me that restaurant quality shrimp has gotten incredibly smaller. In a shrimp dinner you are lucky to get 2" shrimp, and most places have switched to the 1” and the popcorn variety (tinny tiny).
What happened to make shrimp shrink? Why can’t they raise shrimp in farms to produce large enough shrimp for restaurants? Why is it easy to find a place selling all you can eat crab legs, but all you can eat shrimp is basically extinct?
I have no problem getting large shrimp at the local sea food markets. They are more expensive per pound then the smaller shrimp.
I see “all you can eat” shrimp meals and buffets all the time. I would hardly call them extinct. (at least not in my area) Maybe they are just less popular where you are.
I think that part of the reason you don’t see them now is because it’s winter, and the shrimp are either in deep water or in the mud (I don’t know shrimp, but the crabs are probably dug in by now.)
I consider this a serious question, one that’s in need of serious research. I too remember getting shrimp as fours and sixes (four and six to the pound.) I’ll go to Rockport this spring and study the availability of large shrimp. I’ll report back, if I’m not too full.
They do have the biggest shrimp I’ve seen as well. After eating at Shuckers, I passed the word around and people replied in kind about their favorite spot for huge shrimp.
The shrimp are so big, they have them on ice in the window. Smaller shrimp would look silly next to them. I think a cocktail was two shrimp, and a knife and fork were required.
I know that shrimp are more commen now on menus, and that has strained the system a bit. Restaurant chains sell smaller shrimp, which are actually tastier (in general).
All you can eat shrimp feasts are alive in the Philly metro area. Most are not doing well, not for lack of shrimp, but for lack of a demand. Seems crabs have become more fashionable. They were always popular in this part of the US, but now they’ve become a restaurant specialty, and this has nudged the shrimps aside a bit…and you’re right: Crab legs are more popular now as well.
There are plenty of Jumbo shrimp. The reason restaurants now sell smaller shrimp is just downsizing. Have you seen the tiny hamburgers tell sell these days?