River Shrimp
River shrimp have been enjoyed for a long time, but unless you catch them yourself you may never get a chance to sample them. The one and only time they came my way was a few years ago at the old Lafitte's Landing, at the foot of the Sunshine Bridge. Chef John Folse he told me that when he was a kid he used to catch and eat them all the time. River shrimp come out of THE river--as well as the Atchafalaya and even the Red River. Living in fresh water, they're unusual to begin with. They have a bluish tinge--kinda pretty, really. They're medium-small, about 65 to the pound. The flavor of river shrimp is very unusual--sweet, almost. Both Folse and a guy at Langenstein's (who I called after seeing the store's ad for river shrimp a few years back) told me that river shrimp should not be cooked with crab boil--just some lemon slices and salt. Folse gave me a big bag of them, and I took them home and did exactly that. They tasted so good that they needed no sauce. I pulled off the heads and ate the rest, without peeling. No problem. River shrimp are highly seasonal. If they turn up at all, they do so in the early spring. If they show up, they're very plentiful. Despite that, they rarely make it to market. Still, I include them in our Seafood Countdown to encourage more marketing and selling of them. One more funny thing about river shrimp. The people along the river disdained them, because they were so easily caught. Isn't that always the way? Maybe if they were rare and expensive we'd see them all over the place.