Our annual survey of seafood in Southeast Louisiana this year counts down the 33 best seafood species enjoyed in restaurants, where they may be better than what you could cook at home. The small advantage that restaurants have over you and me is a better selection of sizes for the decapods. They also know when shrimp are in season. (Not quite yet.)
#7: Louisiana Shrimp
The shrimp we gather from local waters are of such fantastic quality that we're safe in calling them the best in the world. For years, they were the standard of all America. In most of the of the country, when people ate shrimp they were probably eating our shrimp. Quality versus price is the main game when it comes to shrimp. Don't be wooed away from the local product for any reason. Don't be among the people who save a dollar on a pile of shrimp by getting imported shrimp of substantially lower goodness. Not all is disaster, though. During shrimp season, restaurants have a hard time getting fish, because all the boats are out catching shrimp. Shrimp remain the most valuable single seafood commodity in the country, with Louisiana leading the league. Shrimp migrate from the Gulf into the estuaries along the coast. There they spawn and fatten up. Brown shrimp appear in the spring and fall. White shrimp, which have a longer growing cycle, show up in autumn. Although to the untrained eye white shrimp and brown shrimp look pretty much alike, white shrimp are the ones with the ridiculously long antennae. Shrimp are sized according to "count"--the number of shrimp per pound. The best for barbecuing or broiling are under 20 count. Most of the shrimp you get in more elegant dishes are 20-25 count; for things like fried shrimp or shrimp Creole, they go as small as 40 count. White shrimp are the best for barbecue shrimp, grilled shrimp, broiled shrimp, or any other dish where big shrimp are needed. The meat is a bit tenderer than that of brown shrimp, and the shells aren't as hard. And at least one authority notes that white shrimp don't eat acorn worms, which is what gives some shrimp that pronounced iodine flavor at certain times. [caption id="attachment_42854" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Boiled shrimp.[/caption]
Although getting shrimp fresh off the boat is clearly the way to go, shrimp freeze and thaw without any significant damage to texture or flavor. So they're available year-round, not just during the fall shrimp season. Here's how you can tell if they've been frozen. If the legs and claws are sort of black, they've been frozen.
