We like shrimp, unlike, well……

A friend wrote with Biblical enthusiasm for raw honey, from Leviticus. While we always like to hear about theological reasons for buying our product, anything from Leviticus is tainted by the prohibition on shellfish. Georgia has a coastal eco-system that is one of the last not-over-exploited coastal fisheries in this country. Georgia white shrimp is an unrecognized culinary delight. We have the astounding luck to be able to go right to the fishermen and buy today-fresh white shrimp and we are really grateful and conscious of what a privilege it is.

I bought a month’s supply this week and we’ve had three nights of shrimp. First was a phø with shrimp, noodles and sprouts. Then steamed shiu mai of shrimp and fat with flavorings (ginger, sesame, scallion, soy). I’ve mastered dim sum wrappers thanks to the research of John Thorne in his book ‘Pot on the Fire’. Once you have the secret (hint: boil the water for the wrappers) dim sum seems easy, really. Then shrimp mosh with egg white, honey, fish sauce and starch, formed onto sugar cane sticks and grilled. The grilled shrimp paste is wrapped in lettuce leaves and dipped in nuoc cham. So, Vietnamese, Chinese then back to Vietnam. And yes, before we went out to a holiday party last night we steamed some and had shrimp cocktail. As she said, just a little pick-me-up.

Before I lived in Georgia the best shrimp I’d ever had were in Thailand, on Ko Chang, a large island off the west coast of the isthmus between Thailand and Malaysia. You can see Malaysia from there and many of the folks are Malay sea gypsies who have their own, non-Thai cuisine. Every day at dawn the boats would send skiffs in with the night’s catch, some days shrimp, some days squid and both were of world class quality. One could see the boats offshore at night, burning metal halide lamps to attract plankton which would then attract predators, large schools of ilex squid or big shrimp. I liked going down to the beach at dawn to watch the haggling, like fish markets everywhere, and know what I was going to be offered for meals that day. Tom yum was always on the menu, more hot and more sour than one could imagine but full of plump, fresh and delicate squid or shrimp. I liked the Malay curries, red with lots of spices and basil.

That’s a quarter in the picture, they’re not just good they’re big, big, big too.