[Sca-cooks] OP: shrimps

[Barbara Benson]

Greetings,

Having spent my formative years on the east coast on an island with a major
shrimp industry I can vouch for the fact that it is possible to pull the
entirety of the shrimp out of the tail shell. You have to use your fingers,
and I was just trying to describe how to do it and failed miserably - I
could show you! It takes pratice, just like taking the very last bit out of
hard shell crabs. It has never occured to me that it might be non-polite,
there are just some things you eat with your fingers: shrimp, fried chicken,
french fries, sandwiches, cookies, corn on the cob.....ummm getting hungry
now!

Now, as to why they are left on, the only thing I can guess is presentation.

Now, if we are ever on the coast together I will teach you how to throw a
cast net and pop their little heads off just before you put them into the
boil.

Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva


> Ok, why _are_ large shrimps (prawns for non-US people) served with their
> stupid little tails still on? And is there a polite way to remove them? I
> am an absolute pig about shrimp and hate to cut the shrimp off with my
> knife before the tail joint (which is often a messy process anyway), but I
> suspect that that's the way Miss Manners says to do it.
>
> -- Jadwiga, agreeably full of Pad Thai with Shrimp