America's favorite seafood? Shrimp. It's easy to see why: Shrimp are available fresh or frozen, shell-on or peeled, raw or cooked. Shrimp lend themselves to countless dishes, from curries to gumbos to kebabs to stir fries.
"Mom and I loved shrimp," celebrity chef John Besh recalls in "My New Orleans," a combination cookbook, memoir and tribute to Louisiana's food culture. "Dad enjoyed them, but Mom and I loved them, just because they are so easy to cook."
Louisiana is the major source for domestic shrimp. The state's shrimp industry was socked hard by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, as Besh noted in his book (written before the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico), and has been battered by cheaper foreign competition.
The region's shrimpers are the equivalent of the family farm to Besh. "In our neck of the woods, that means everything," he said in a phone interview.
Besh, whose restaurants include August, Luke, Domenica and Besh Steak, is not the only New Orleans chef gung-ho on the local product.
"I think it's important to know where the shrimp are from because I personally think the Gulf shrimp are the tastiest and the best," said Susan Spicer, chef/owner of Bayona restaurant, who has made a reputation for using under-used and under-appreciated fish species on her menus.
In terms of environmental cred, wild and farmed shrimp from the United States and Canada get the nod from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. Seafood Watch recommends avoiding shrimp from other countries.
Which shrimp is which? Consumers should ask at restaurants and retail outlets, said Sheila Bowman, outreach director for the California-based program.
"The seafood supply chain has good information available that will tell you how it was caught, where it was caught," she said. "If a restaurant or a retailer can't tell you, it's because they haven't made it a priority to understand or know about the information."
"Not all shrimp are created equal," Besh insisted. "Domestic shrimp are much more scrutinized." "
Besh uses both the brown shrimp, which tend to arrive at the market in May and June, and the larger white shrimp, which can be found from August onward. While larger shrimp are more popular, they also pose a challenge.
"They're more prone to be tougher and chewier," he said. "If you go for medium-sized shrimp, they'll be more forgiving and, frankly, there's sometimes less of that iodine flavor."
North Carolina, which harvests between 5 million and 9 million pounds of shrimp a year, has similar seasons. White shrimp are caught in the early spring and the fall, while brown shrimp are harvested in the summer, according to Scott Baker of N.C. Sea Grant. But the state is a small player in the shrimp market; the Gulf Coast harvests 90 percent of the nation's shrimp.
Whatever shrimp you buy, make sure to enjoy them to the max and showcase them for all their worth. As Bowman notes, the best way to treat the world's shrimp population may be to eat them less often and relish them more.
"We have this all-you-can-eat-shrimp mentality," she said. "Shrimp is not a commodity that can withstand that kind of demand. We have to rethink overeating seafood like the salmon, tuna and shrimp that we love. We're loving them to death."
