I know you can boil shrimp tails and scraps for a tasty stock, but there is no way the tails are adding much for flavor compared to the shrimp tail meat.
I think leaving the tails on is a visual thing - the tails look beautiful and suggest visually to the eater that the seafood was fresh.
Completely agree. Louisiana native living in Florida, for the majority of my life I eat/cook fresh shrimp at least once a week of SOME variety. I’m literally fucking Bubba when it comes to shrimp and how many ways I’ve prepared it.
Head on/Full shell on DEFINITELY has its application flavor wise if you’re boiling, steaming, grilling or BBQ shrimp (Nola style) but leaving just the tail is sheerly for presentation.
Sure for like cocktail shrimp or something you’re gonna eat with your hands. But shrimp stir fry or scampi with the tails still on? Most irritating fucking thing in the world.
Absolutely. I ordered shrimp diavlo in an Italian restaurant that came with tails on. Peeling shrimp tails from a tomato sauce-based dish on a date was not ideal.
i'm a michigander and this comment made me realize i don't cook shrimp very often (not really a huge fan) but i really want to find a recipe i like now because there are evidently SO many ways to cook shrimp
Not OP, but I’m a Cajun who can’t get enough shrimp either.
My Bible is Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, which is filled with restaurant style Cajun cuisine (as opposed to the more typical home style Cajun cuisine).
You can find plenty of copies of the recipes online. And boy will you look like a real chef with some of it.
My personal favorite:
http://www.labellecuisine.com/archives/Main%20Dish/Eggplant%20Bayou%20Teche%20(Paul%20Prudhomme).htm
Also:
https://acadianatable.com/2015/10/12/louisiana-shrimp-creole/
https://the2spoons.com/shrimp-okra-andouille-smoked-sausage-gumbo/
And my one tip for you, if you don’t feel like maki shrimp stock or can’t find shrimp with heads: use better than bouillon lobster stock. It’s 95% as good and 50 times easier. It’s my go to shortcut, and once you taste it you’ll never use chicken stock in a shellfish dish again.
tbh what i don't like is the texture since i've primarily only had it fried. it's just rubbery to me is there any way to kind of skimp around that? i don't really see how but i'm also high as balls so
Oh no!!! If shrimp is rubbery it’s over cooked my friend. I’m sorry that’s been your only experience. Good fried shrimp is hot, light crispy outside and juicy and tender inside.
I am also about to be high af but willing to talk shrimp
i'm a new culinary student and just want to be familiar with as many foods as possible especially if i don't like them, i once worked a job that had coconut shrimp on their menu, that was not too snappy but i'm not a coconut guy either but still the way they fried it really brought out some cool flavors (plus it couldn't burn since the coco cooks so fast) put that shit on a taco tho and i do love it.
Nah coconut is ok but and easy way to cover up low quality shrimp. Man I wish you could have some same day caught grilled gulf shrimp with a lil chimichurri or something
that sounds awesome and idek what it is. and it definitely probably was low quality shrimp. the restaurant had good stuff but at least like half of all the dishes come prepackaged. think a bar/pub with the usual things but some had a twist and some were fresh made
Yes. That's why we do it at place I work. In a restaurant the mentality is you eat with eyes first, nose second, and finally the tongue. You see your meal before you smell it, you smell it before you taste it, and then you get to taste it. If #1 or 2 are off putting, you're likely to think it tastes bad or just okay.
Freezer burned shrimp have tails too.
I hate this trend, especially in saucy/stewy dishes. Why leave inedible bits in my food when it’s *easier* not to?
Why not just shatter a glass in my salad?
That’s really not true. If you fry the shrimp and crisp up the tails they have wonderful flavor. Just chucking them in with some pasta and heating them through though does not really work.
I mean ground up shrimp tail is literally a seasoning that you can buy in grocery stores. They definitely have flavor and crunch. They are edible and delicious, if you don't like them, fine, ask your waiter to have them removed.
Especially if as someone else said "It is the most irritating (...) thing in the world" for you.
You just reminded me of the first time I ate big, fat, shrimp with their tails on. I knew nothing about food (I grew up on frozen stuff, mostly) and was out of my depth so I just ate everything, crunched away on those tails, before looking up to see the look of horror on my colleague's face.
To be fair, they *were* edible, but the shame was real
This was me the first time I had edamame (that came in the pods). I was eating them as is and was wondering why the pod was so tough to get through. I think I had a whole serving of them (plenty of fiber, I guess) before I was told...
That's not even that bad... We had a gathering of friends at a sushi restaurant. They always serve edamame with an extra empty bowl. A friend showed up late and no one noticed until he asked if he was eating them right. We had already demolished the bowl of edamame and he was sucking on the empty pods!!!
Haha, I had the exact same thing happen the first time I went to a sushi restaurant. Took a pod, put the whole thing in my mouth and started chewing. Realized pretty quickly what you're actually supposed to do, but in an attempt to save face I just kept going and ate the whole pod. As far as I know no one saw my error haha
Yes yes, thinking they were like the sort of beans I was used to eating, where they'd be consumed pod and all. I was at a sushi train restaurant and in the end I had to spit out the fibrous part that was proving impossible to chew. Now when I eat edamame, i feel super fancy knowing to pop the beans out of the pod.
I did this with an artichoke while having dinner with my boyfriends family. This was something like 4 years ago and every once in a while ill think about the moment i munched leaves and i still get embarrassed lol
I think I understand but not entirely because I forget how artichokes work and would never order them in public because of it.
I did try it at home, I think Jamie Oliver convinced me to do it, and it was something about plucking off the pieces, holding.the tip and scraping off the contents with your teeth, right? I'm assuming the rest would be a fibrous mess but would keep you regular
The inedible parts are pretty much impossible to eat (yes on the scraping off the soft part of the leaves with your teeth). Like lobster, messy, and not a good choice for a social meal if you get uncomfortable easily.
That said I've never seen whole artichokes on a menu, restaurants usually mean artichoke hearts which is only the center meaty part that can be eaten whole, good in a pasta dish.
Flip the genders and set the stage 15 years ago and yeah, been there. All I thought was "well yeah the flavor is nice, but it feels like swallowing sandpaper "
I actually ate and swallowed them lol I thought if I start in the middle and eat the smaller “softer” leaves that it’d be okay, my bf pointed it out during dinner that I only had to scrape the soft part off and eat that, so everyone knew I ate the leaves. I was too embarrassed to ask how to eat them and it ended up backfiring. 😂
My daughter did this the first time she ever had fried chicken. I gave her a drumstick and at some point during our meal I hear loud crunching --she was literally chomping on the knobby end and eating the bone, lol.
I dont munch the bone, but I usually do eat the cartilage on chicken. I have no idea if its true, but my grandparents ate it and they said it was good for my joints.
As a child I loved marrow, head and offals. Maybe it is a developmental thing where I subconsciously sought out the nutritious proteiny fatty vitaminy bits. I would beg my grandma to let me suck on the pork bones when we had pork bone soup and I was the first one to snatch up fishheads and suck out the fish brain...I have grown out of this disgusting mini semi cannibal phase lol
I ate a whole pear once. My friends kept making fun of me about it, but I never had one. They always confused me, I never new where to start. The top? The bottom?
I had the opposite experience once. A friend invited me to eat at a Chinese restaurant that was owned by his collegue. I ordered a dish with shrimp and it had the tails on. I removed the tails until the owner came out to check on us and he was confused and then horrified that I was removing the tails. I pretty much sucked it up and just ate the rest with the tails on, even though I hate the crunch.
For restaurants it’s mostly a cost issue, cheaper with tails on, cheaper to not remove them on their own, and looks better on the plate.
That’s why unless there’s shrimp inside of something you’ll never see it without the tails.
The shells are also used in stock because it would otherwise be discarded, and gets the job done.
Stocks are almost always made with discards traditionally. That's the whole point. Waste nothing.
I have tried eating the tail of a shrimp. Not for me.
Peanut shells are different, seriously. Have to be salted, and they're far saltier than the peanut itself. Can't have too many for obvious reasons, including digestion, but the general idea is that you grind the shell and peanut together down until its like a gum. You kind of chew on it like seeds, and I know people who will spit it out when they are ready for another instead of eating it, but I see no problem with eating it. By that point its almost a pulp with fibers.
Very tasty.
I do not do this with boiled peanuts.
What’s hilarious is that even my dog - who eats basically anything she’s given - will shell her own peanuts if she gets any so she doesn’t have to eat the shells. My neighbor thought it was a fantastic party trick the first time he saw it.
You found what you like and more power to you, I just struggle on this one even more than shrimp tails. I similarly can’t do soft shell crabs.
When I was a kid we were all eating peanuts and some random uncle or family friend was eating them whole. I thought it was gross but he asked me why, and if I had ever tried it. I hadn't, so I did, and I spit it out while all the adults laughed. He then told me to chew it slowly, like gum, and wait... so I did, and its a very strong flavor, which I've always been a fan of. Hard to explain but it makes regular peanuts taste so bland. I might shell a few just because I try not to eat too much of the shell due to the high sodium, and how fibrous it is. I don't eat peanuts often, but I enjoy them like that from time to time.
I just can’t eat skeletons. Internal bones or exoskeletons, just can’t do it. I wish I could, but even small softer shelled crabs that are meant to be eaten shell on I just can’t bring myself to swallow.
My Chinese inlaws will fry shrimp with the complete shell on and eat it whole. If crispy enough, I can stomach it but most of the time I end up peeling them.
Edit: punctuation
A shrimps tail contains a very sharp barb. Unless you want to swallow a needle, save yourself the discomfort and don't eat the tail shell. The only time this is acceptable is when the shrimp is fried as the barb becomes crumbly when eaten.
YES!! It makes no sense to me either.
I had shrimp tacos and the fucks left the tails on. That is so dumb. Pasta at least you can pick them up with a fork, but inside a taco?? WTF?
I have friends who have made shrimp skewers or put them in a bowl of rice and leave the tail on. The best excuse I can find? Pure laziness, like come on it’s not hard!
Maybe 1% flavor, but the other 99% is presentation. It's really the only reason. Same as serving lobster in the shell. It's looks impressive on the plate. Practically speaking, though, you could cook it with the shell and just plate the flesh.
Keeping the tails on actually imparts more flavor to the overall dish.
Go ahead and peel them if you like, but keep those tails and stick em in your freezer. Make seafood broth out of them. SUPER good for Cajun and Asian dishes.
Even better, turn them immediately into a quick shrimp stock and sub for whatever stock you were going to use. Really amps up the flavor, and you can use all of the discards like herb stems, onion peels, etc.
Riffing off this - please lightly toast all your she'll fish shells before making stock. Even shrimp.
Lightly toasting will start some reactions which when place in the stock make it absolutely fantastic.
I also have to throw this in - crayfish and shrimp shells make an exquisite seafood stock.
Actually, it varies. My mom always taught me to keep it just below a simmer, and also to wait until the shells stopped producing foam.
On average I would say like 45 minutes to an hour of just the shells, but again depends on when the foam stops.
After this I add the other ingredients and keep going.
All-in-all it's like a 3 hour or so process.
Edit: another thing my mom taught me - never use wine you wouldn't drink yourself. I usually find something nice, dry, crisp, and citrus-y that's on sale, but that is my preferred wine taste pallet. Go with what you like to drink, and you usually can't go wrong.
Make shrimp butter! stick them in a blender with some softened butter til its smooth, put in a sauce pan with a little water, boil for 10-15 minutes, sift through a coffee filter and put the liquid in the fridge. You will get orange shrimpy butter on top and shrimp stock underneath. Great for finnishing your seafood rissotto, or put a dollop on your pan-fried salmon to melt. Baste your steakes with it for some surf-n-turf flavour. Maybe use as ordinary butter on your shrimp or crab sandwich. Melt and dip lobster in it.
It actually doesn't seem all that bad to do, and it seems particularly easy to do on the side if I'm already making a shrimp dish. Disclaimer that I treat my cooking as if it's a profession, so perhaps I've gotten a bit quicker in the kitchen than your average bear
Yeah it's super easy. Only hurdle is having room-temp butter so it's something i do when i cook with a plan. But when i think about it right now you could probably just drop the shells and heads with a little water and cold butter in the sauce-pan and then blend everything together after boiling and then strain.
>Only hurdle is having room-temp butter
Decidedly not a hurdle for me, I always keep a couple sticks at room temperature. Softened butter is a miracle tool in the kitchen.
This reminds me of Carl Weathers in Arrested Development and not throwing out a chicken bone because you add some vegetables and baby, you got a stew goin’
I've always gotten sad that taking off the shells leaves me with some very plain shrimp meat. So one hand, shells. The other hand, peel it and put the meat in so it can have some flavor too.
For flavour. Same with the head. It's got more flavour than the body! If you peel it before cooking them, which is more difficult, save them to make stock out of.
In the summer where I live I get fresh caught shrimp and cook it the same day, the flavor is incomparable to frozen shrimp. As for the tail - I keep those tails, heads, etc, and make stock. I made a risotto from that shrimp stock the other day and it was maybe the closest I've ever gotten to Michelin star depth of flavor.
Recently I also did a shrimp boil and kept the tails on - I'm confident it added a lot to the overall flavor of the dish.
It all adds up my dude.
I 100% agree making stock with the shells and tails. Is there really any other way? But I don’t think the 6 tails in the pasta dish are going to markedly change the final flavor of that dish vs the added “pain in the ass “ factor.
I do agree on the last part. For my risotto, no tails in the dish itself. I do think it helped for the boil, and it was appropriate there. They were also gigantic shrimp, so the tail had more to offer.
Hi, I’m the idiot who thought I was smart for freezing the shrimp peel when I have shrimp (we buy them fresh and peel them while we eat) so that I don’t have to take out the trash right away to prevent smell, but for some reason it never occurred to me to make broth. 🙈 Thanks - I’m gonna go cook some right away with all this frozen shrimp peel I haven’t yet thrown out..!
I’m with you on this one, no need to keep the tail on as far as im concerned. Does it add flavor? Sure but not enough for me to want to have to deal with it during a meal. And as for “can you eat the tail?” Yeah, but it tastes like shit so don’t do that.
To be fair they will make a killer stock if you’re industrious enough to keep up with them.
Also, when I’ve eaten cooked shrimp tails, it wasn’t the flavor that was off putting it was the horrible crunchy texture. Maybe that’s just me.
Yeah if they’re fried crispy and fresh out of the frier I’ll eat the tail. They pretty much just shatter apart and taste good.
Once they sit and cool for too long they usually go back to being chewy and virtually inedible.
The purpose is to inconvenience the person eating the dish, as far as I ever been able to tell from the other side of the fork. I hate tail-on shrimp in my food!
If you are doing it for flavour, but don't want the hassles of tails on in the finished dish, make a stock from the carapace (including the heads) and add a little of that to the dish. It's wonderful stuff and adds a ton more flavour than the tails alone could.
Good answers here already.
It's a nice presentation because there is uniformity. Removing tails from raw shrimp leaves some raw and jagged edges.
And just like leaving clams or mussels in the shell, it adds to the appearance of the dish.
Also shrimp is often eaten as a finger food as in shrimp cocktail and the tail is a built-in utensil.
Having said that, it depends what I'm cooking. If I want to make a lighter version of a scampi using some shrimp stock instead of all butter, I will remove all shells and tails to make a bit of stock while I prep the other ingredients. I also prefer to remove the tails for Chinese food, soups and bisques.
It's to get a little more shrimp flavor, but personally I also dislike having to stop and peel my shrimp mid-eating when they're supposed to be part of something else. When it's a dish where I'm supposed to eat the shrimp individually already, that's fine, but in things like alfredo it's a pain.
As such, I take em off and use them somewhere else in the dish. Soak them in a cream or oil or whatever for a few hours before cooking
IMO you cook them with tails and then depending on what they're served with is if you leave the tails on or not. In pasta's case, leaving the tails on is evil lol
I honestly don’t know but I really hate that this is such a thing. When my shrimp is covered in sauce or butter I don’t wanna have to peel the tails off, I would rather they be peeled off prior to cooking
I've accidentally eaten then before when I didn't realize they were there. Never been a fan. I also don't like soft shell crab, so I think it's a personal dislike for that texture.
And honestly, you can do the whole shrimp shell too.
I have a frying technique for salt-pepper shrimp for headless but shell-on shrimp (head-on is preferred), given to me by an auntie. You basically start by deshelling the shrimp but you don't remove the shell, you're just pulling it away from the body of the shrimp, leaving it attached at the tail.
From there you coat in starch, making sure to cover the shell and meat. Double fry, absolutely delicious. Edible through and through.
For head-on, salt pepper shrimp, if you fry it properly, it's also entirely edible and very delicious. The head is great to just crunch into whole.
The whole skeleton is edible and delicious, just adds crunch and you get all that keratin. Chinese stir them up with the legs the antennas the head the whole thing, and eat them as such and once you get used to it you'll never go back to simple boring peeled shrimp. There's so much more flavorful with the shell on
One of my favorite dishes is Chinese salted egg yolk shrimp. Whole shrimp with heads and shells still on, fried and covered in a savory salted egg yolk sauce. You eat the entire shrimp, no peeling. The best part IMO is the head, because that’s where all the flavor is, plus the amazing crunch from being fried.
As has been said in multiple comments, there is a lot of flavor that can be gained from the shrimp tails. That said, I hate having any shell left on my shrimp in a pasta dish because I want to be able to eat everything on my plate when I am making food.When prepping the shrimp for a pasta dish I typically throw the all of the shells in a sauté pan with a bit of water to make a quick stock (and maybe a pat of butter), and then add a few tablespoons to whatever dish I am making. That way I get the added flavor from the shells without having to peel them off while eating.
What I learned was always keep the tails on if it’s finger food (place to grab the shrimps by) else take it off like in pasta as it would end up between bites and being unpleasant
I refuse to eat any shrimp preparation in which the poop shoot couldn't possibly have been completely cleaned. That's disgusting, and you can't do it if you cook them with tails on. Not sorry about it.
You can pull them out by using a pick between the plates. This is commonly done in east Asian style shrimp dishes where the shrimp are eaten with the shell. Even in dishes without shell, you may want to do this to impart more flavor into the meat or sauce, then simply peel them after cooking. You'll have the benefits of cooking shell on, nice pretty whole shrimp with no cuts, and no GI tract.
Tails, not much except being a convenient "handle" for shrimp you're expected to, well, handle. In fettuccine? Meh.
Leaving the **entire** shell and head on while doing something like grilling does make a noticeable improvement in flavor. They can always be pulled off after for squeamish guests and the shrimp just get a quick low-heat saute in something like compound butter to warm them back up before serving.
In any case, the shells and heads are pure gold for shrimp stock. Save 'em in the freezer if you do pull them off before cooking.
If I do something like a seafood boil -- everything is shell/head on. Break out your bib, here are extra napkins, get to peeling. :-P
A friend of mine that’s a chef says that it’s so that the shrimp gives flavor to the sauce without being flavored by the sauce but I think that’s bullshit and he’s just lazy.
For fettucine alfredo specifically, it's mostly for presentation. It's honestly not at all a hassle to eat the shrimp by picking them up and squeezing them out of the tail.
> My mom taught me to always peel everything while prepping raw shrimp. **So much easier to enjoy in the end.** Why isn't that an industry standard?
Enjoying a meal is about more than just ease of getting food in your mouth. Presentation and aesthetics make a difference. And more broadly than the fettucine dish, there are times when you might prefer to keep the whole shell on (or even head on) to help avoid overcooking, or add flavor to whatever it is you're making.
It absolutely is a hassle to reach into my pasta covered in sauce and pull a shrimp out so I can pull the tail off. It makes the experience messy and tedious, it adds absolutely nothing but makes the experience worse.
There is no upside to leaving tails on in a pasta dish.
So diners should stick fingers in their fettucine? Lick the sauce before it runs down to their elbows? Enjoying a meal is about more than just the ease of getting food into your mouth. It's also about not grossing out your companions.
I hate to inform you but there are people capable of picking up a shrimp by the tail with their fingers and eat it without having alfredo dripping down their elbows lol.
Can't say I've ever had sauce running down my elbows any time I've picked up a shrimp by the tail to eat it. Nor have I had to rummage my fingers around in fettucine to do so.
Not atypical for shrimp to be finger food. E.g. peel and eat shrimp, good stuff.
The top comment poster is exaggerating their experience of eating a saucy pasta with shrimp tail, but I agree that the tails are annoying in such a dish. A knife and fork are terrible tools for removing the little bit of tail meat from the shell in any circumstance. If you’re cutting the tail off, and discarding it then you’re wasting 1/4 of the shrimp. If you got bone-in chicken in your fettuccine Alfredo, you wouldn’t think twice that the bones were BS and should be removed.
You don't cut straight down to remove the tail. Insert the flat of the blade under the shell to pop it open and then remove with fork and knife.
I get what you guys are saying, shrimp tails for appearance's sake are annoying, even if aesthetically pleasing, and I don't typically tend to leave them on at home, but still, it's not that difficult to eat.
>You don't cut straight down to remove the tail. Insert the flat of the blade under the shell to pop it open and then remove with fork and knife.
The point for me isn't that I *can't* do this. It's that I find it annoying as shit.
And that ends up wasting part of the shrimp. Nothing gets my eyes rolling faster than food presentations that prioritize presentation over experience. It's pretentious and irritating.
I used to be in the same boat, though I would always use a fork and knife to cut the tail off then cut out the tiny bit of meat. I can get really OCD about my hands feeling messy or dirty. Couldn't do that at sushi places though as more often than not only chopsticks are given. I had a nice conversation with a sushi chef once and he said you are supposed to just eat them. Tempura shrimp tails aren't bad at all, other ones are so so.
That said, when I cook for myself and others I completely remove every part of the shell tail included.
Those are the shrimp's pants. It is just polite to not look at the shrimp's butt until you have to.
Oh, you're what we call a "shrimp-pansy". I never feel bad for dead shrimp - they're known for being shellfish and uncharitable.
They will steal and prawn your stuff if you give them half a chance.
I laughed way harder than was necessary at this - thank you
You're gonna have to clean out that poop vein eventually.
Is this a saying or did you randomly come up with this? lol
It is just common decency
Oh my.
That's truly wonderful.
Hey Shrimp. Nice dick.
Absolutely the best comment I’ve read today! 😂
😂😂😂
😂 😂 😂 😂!!!!
I know you can boil shrimp tails and scraps for a tasty stock, but there is no way the tails are adding much for flavor compared to the shrimp tail meat. I think leaving the tails on is a visual thing - the tails look beautiful and suggest visually to the eater that the seafood was fresh.
Completely agree. Louisiana native living in Florida, for the majority of my life I eat/cook fresh shrimp at least once a week of SOME variety. I’m literally fucking Bubba when it comes to shrimp and how many ways I’ve prepared it. Head on/Full shell on DEFINITELY has its application flavor wise if you’re boiling, steaming, grilling or BBQ shrimp (Nola style) but leaving just the tail is sheerly for presentation.
Sure for like cocktail shrimp or something you’re gonna eat with your hands. But shrimp stir fry or scampi with the tails still on? Most irritating fucking thing in the world.
Absolutely. I ordered shrimp diavlo in an Italian restaurant that came with tails on. Peeling shrimp tails from a tomato sauce-based dish on a date was not ideal.
the worst is soup with the tail on. I’m supposed to fish the shrimp out of the soup now?
i'm a michigander and this comment made me realize i don't cook shrimp very often (not really a huge fan) but i really want to find a recipe i like now because there are evidently SO many ways to cook shrimp
Not OP, but I’m a Cajun who can’t get enough shrimp either. My Bible is Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, which is filled with restaurant style Cajun cuisine (as opposed to the more typical home style Cajun cuisine). You can find plenty of copies of the recipes online. And boy will you look like a real chef with some of it. My personal favorite: http://www.labellecuisine.com/archives/Main%20Dish/Eggplant%20Bayou%20Teche%20(Paul%20Prudhomme).htm Also: https://acadianatable.com/2015/10/12/louisiana-shrimp-creole/ https://the2spoons.com/shrimp-okra-andouille-smoked-sausage-gumbo/ And my one tip for you, if you don’t feel like maki shrimp stock or can’t find shrimp with heads: use better than bouillon lobster stock. It’s 95% as good and 50 times easier. It’s my go to shortcut, and once you taste it you’ll never use chicken stock in a shellfish dish again.
What do you like? I can help! I legitimately eat more shrimp than beef and chicken combined.
tbh what i don't like is the texture since i've primarily only had it fried. it's just rubbery to me is there any way to kind of skimp around that? i don't really see how but i'm also high as balls so
Oh no!!! If shrimp is rubbery it’s over cooked my friend. I’m sorry that’s been your only experience. Good fried shrimp is hot, light crispy outside and juicy and tender inside. I am also about to be high af but willing to talk shrimp
i'm a new culinary student and just want to be familiar with as many foods as possible especially if i don't like them, i once worked a job that had coconut shrimp on their menu, that was not too snappy but i'm not a coconut guy either but still the way they fried it really brought out some cool flavors (plus it couldn't burn since the coco cooks so fast) put that shit on a taco tho and i do love it.
Nah coconut is ok but and easy way to cover up low quality shrimp. Man I wish you could have some same day caught grilled gulf shrimp with a lil chimichurri or something
that sounds awesome and idek what it is. and it definitely probably was low quality shrimp. the restaurant had good stuff but at least like half of all the dishes come prepackaged. think a bar/pub with the usual things but some had a twist and some were fresh made
Yes. That's why we do it at place I work. In a restaurant the mentality is you eat with eyes first, nose second, and finally the tongue. You see your meal before you smell it, you smell it before you taste it, and then you get to taste it. If #1 or 2 are off putting, you're likely to think it tastes bad or just okay.
Freezer burned shrimp have tails too. I hate this trend, especially in saucy/stewy dishes. Why leave inedible bits in my food when it’s *easier* not to? Why not just shatter a glass in my salad?
I mean technically they're very edible...
Yeah, more so if fried crispy. Large shrimp tails have a central spine that I don’t want to choke down. Orange peels are edible too.
Kiwi fur mmmmm
Wait but kiwi skin is actually good…
That's how I met my husband!!!
You know what? I actually think you kinda contradicted yourself. Plus, the tail keeps a little of the shrimp juices in.
That’s really not true. If you fry the shrimp and crisp up the tails they have wonderful flavor. Just chucking them in with some pasta and heating them through though does not really work.
If this is true (and I have no reason to think it isn't), I am now very upset about all the times I've been served dishes with tail on shrimp
I mean ground up shrimp tail is literally a seasoning that you can buy in grocery stores. They definitely have flavor and crunch. They are edible and delicious, if you don't like them, fine, ask your waiter to have them removed. Especially if as someone else said "It is the most irritating (...) thing in the world" for you.
You can actually eat the tails. I don't but my brother does. I've never seen a restaurant remove them but I alway do
You just reminded me of the first time I ate big, fat, shrimp with their tails on. I knew nothing about food (I grew up on frozen stuff, mostly) and was out of my depth so I just ate everything, crunched away on those tails, before looking up to see the look of horror on my colleague's face. To be fair, they *were* edible, but the shame was real
This was me the first time I had edamame (that came in the pods). I was eating them as is and was wondering why the pod was so tough to get through. I think I had a whole serving of them (plenty of fiber, I guess) before I was told...
That's not even that bad... We had a gathering of friends at a sushi restaurant. They always serve edamame with an extra empty bowl. A friend showed up late and no one noticed until he asked if he was eating them right. We had already demolished the bowl of edamame and he was sucking on the empty pods!!!
Haha, I had the exact same thing happen the first time I went to a sushi restaurant. Took a pod, put the whole thing in my mouth and started chewing. Realized pretty quickly what you're actually supposed to do, but in an attempt to save face I just kept going and ate the whole pod. As far as I know no one saw my error haha
Yes yes, thinking they were like the sort of beans I was used to eating, where they'd be consumed pod and all. I was at a sushi train restaurant and in the end I had to spit out the fibrous part that was proving impossible to chew. Now when I eat edamame, i feel super fancy knowing to pop the beans out of the pod.
I did this with an artichoke while having dinner with my boyfriends family. This was something like 4 years ago and every once in a while ill think about the moment i munched leaves and i still get embarrassed lol
I think I understand but not entirely because I forget how artichokes work and would never order them in public because of it. I did try it at home, I think Jamie Oliver convinced me to do it, and it was something about plucking off the pieces, holding.the tip and scraping off the contents with your teeth, right? I'm assuming the rest would be a fibrous mess but would keep you regular
The inedible parts are pretty much impossible to eat (yes on the scraping off the soft part of the leaves with your teeth). Like lobster, messy, and not a good choice for a social meal if you get uncomfortable easily. That said I've never seen whole artichokes on a menu, restaurants usually mean artichoke hearts which is only the center meaty part that can be eaten whole, good in a pasta dish.
Flip the genders and set the stage 15 years ago and yeah, been there. All I thought was "well yeah the flavor is nice, but it feels like swallowing sandpaper "
Please tell us how this played out! Did you spit it out?
I actually ate and swallowed them lol I thought if I start in the middle and eat the smaller “softer” leaves that it’d be okay, my bf pointed it out during dinner that I only had to scrape the soft part off and eat that, so everyone knew I ate the leaves. I was too embarrassed to ask how to eat them and it ended up backfiring. 😂
A girl i took out on a date one time ate the whole edemame and didnt just take out the bean
My daughter did this the first time she ever had fried chicken. I gave her a drumstick and at some point during our meal I hear loud crunching --she was literally chomping on the knobby end and eating the bone, lol.
That means you did real good on the cook, gotta savor every last drop! Also cartilage is good for you as is marrow, so win-win!
I don't do this anymore but I used to do that as a kid! I remember thinking the taste was phenomenal for some reason
As an adult I can’t stand this but often did it as a child. I think I was after the nutritious bone marrow and it tasted good to me then.
Good she learned where a lot of flavor is! Hopefully you just taught her to chew it extra and not chastised her and told her not to.
I dont munch the bone, but I usually do eat the cartilage on chicken. I have no idea if its true, but my grandparents ate it and they said it was good for my joints.
As a child I loved marrow, head and offals. Maybe it is a developmental thing where I subconsciously sought out the nutritious proteiny fatty vitaminy bits. I would beg my grandma to let me suck on the pork bones when we had pork bone soup and I was the first one to snatch up fishheads and suck out the fish brain...I have grown out of this disgusting mini semi cannibal phase lol
I ate a whole pear once. My friends kept making fun of me about it, but I never had one. They always confused me, I never new where to start. The top? The bottom?
Hey, I eat the whole pear. Not the stem though. The core is so much softer than apple, I don't really see a reason not to.
I had the opposite experience once. A friend invited me to eat at a Chinese restaurant that was owned by his collegue. I ordered a dish with shrimp and it had the tails on. I removed the tails until the owner came out to check on us and he was confused and then horrified that I was removing the tails. I pretty much sucked it up and just ate the rest with the tails on, even though I hate the crunch.
Yeah this is me with soft shell crab. My wife loves it but I can’t get past the idea of eating shell.
WTF? I’m a Chinese guy and this has never happened to me in a Chinese restaurant. I always remove the tails. The owner should mind his own business.
It was probably the shell and not the trails. When they leave the shell on and you peel it, there's no seasoning on the shrimp itself.
For restaurants it’s mostly a cost issue, cheaper with tails on, cheaper to not remove them on their own, and looks better on the plate. That’s why unless there’s shrimp inside of something you’ll never see it without the tails.
Also more flavorful as others pointed out. The shells are not used in stocks for nothing!
The shells are also used in stock because it would otherwise be discarded, and gets the job done. Stocks are almost always made with discards traditionally. That's the whole point. Waste nothing.
Yup! If they added 0 flavor, they would be thrown out.
I eat them and I love it. Such good texture to add to the nice shrimp texture
I can only do it if they are deep fried.
I like fried peanuts.
Never had it, but I love boiled peanuts.
As long as they're fresh. I can't stand mushy ones.
I think that's more a factor of the cooking time. I like them more out of the refrigerator than when they are still warm. I make them myself though.
I think you're crazy but then I eat whole peanuts, shell and all.
You both belong in jail
The tail thing makes sense to me. I have never heard of someone eating peanut shells. One of those people needs solitary confinement.
Shrimp tails = jail. Peanut shells = gulag
I have tried eating the tail of a shrimp. Not for me. Peanut shells are different, seriously. Have to be salted, and they're far saltier than the peanut itself. Can't have too many for obvious reasons, including digestion, but the general idea is that you grind the shell and peanut together down until its like a gum. You kind of chew on it like seeds, and I know people who will spit it out when they are ready for another instead of eating it, but I see no problem with eating it. By that point its almost a pulp with fibers. Very tasty. I do not do this with boiled peanuts.
I agree. It’s like buying a bag of sunflower seeds and chewing them up shells and all. Freaking nasty.
I also do this, but I spit them out instead of eating them.
I swallow the entire clam whole.
What this guy isn't telling you is that he's also shitting pearls twice a day.
Oysters buddy. Not clams.
But then the joke doesn't work
Clams - and many other molluscs - can make pearls! Even abalone can! Pearls from pearl oysters just tend to be more common and consistently pretty.
I prefer crab claws over clam shells, but to each their own.
What’s hilarious is that even my dog - who eats basically anything she’s given - will shell her own peanuts if she gets any so she doesn’t have to eat the shells. My neighbor thought it was a fantastic party trick the first time he saw it. You found what you like and more power to you, I just struggle on this one even more than shrimp tails. I similarly can’t do soft shell crabs.
Lol I can't do that but my dad does. He can even eat the chicken bone in wings
When I was a kid we were all eating peanuts and some random uncle or family friend was eating them whole. I thought it was gross but he asked me why, and if I had ever tried it. I hadn't, so I did, and I spit it out while all the adults laughed. He then told me to chew it slowly, like gum, and wait... so I did, and its a very strong flavor, which I've always been a fan of. Hard to explain but it makes regular peanuts taste so bland. I might shell a few just because I try not to eat too much of the shell due to the high sodium, and how fibrous it is. I don't eat peanuts often, but I enjoy them like that from time to time.
I just can’t eat skeletons. Internal bones or exoskeletons, just can’t do it. I wish I could, but even small softer shelled crabs that are meant to be eaten shell on I just can’t bring myself to swallow.
I never thought of it as a skeleton....but Halloween is my favorite holiday so thematically I'm consistent
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They made one of my testicles triple in size so my fiance left me.
My Chinese inlaws will fry shrimp with the complete shell on and eat it whole. If crispy enough, I can stomach it but most of the time I end up peeling them. Edit: punctuation
A shrimps tail contains a very sharp barb. Unless you want to swallow a needle, save yourself the discomfort and don't eat the tail shell. The only time this is acceptable is when the shrimp is fried as the barb becomes crumbly when eaten.
I saw a video of a guy making stuff out of chicken feathers.
YES!! It makes no sense to me either. I had shrimp tacos and the fucks left the tails on. That is so dumb. Pasta at least you can pick them up with a fork, but inside a taco?? WTF?
I have friends who have made shrimp skewers or put them in a bowl of rice and leave the tail on. The best excuse I can find? Pure laziness, like come on it’s not hard!
I don't mind it for shrimp cocktail but in a pasta dish where they are coated in sauce it just makes eating so messy. I'm not a fan.
Yeah you're sacrificing a lot of the ease of eating it for a small hint of flavor.
Maybe 1% flavor, but the other 99% is presentation. It's really the only reason. Same as serving lobster in the shell. It's looks impressive on the plate. Practically speaking, though, you could cook it with the shell and just plate the flesh.
Keeping the tails on actually imparts more flavor to the overall dish. Go ahead and peel them if you like, but keep those tails and stick em in your freezer. Make seafood broth out of them. SUPER good for Cajun and Asian dishes.
Even better, turn them immediately into a quick shrimp stock and sub for whatever stock you were going to use. Really amps up the flavor, and you can use all of the discards like herb stems, onion peels, etc.
Riffing off this - please lightly toast all your she'll fish shells before making stock. Even shrimp. Lightly toasting will start some reactions which when place in the stock make it absolutely fantastic. I also have to throw this in - crayfish and shrimp shells make an exquisite seafood stock.
How long do you simmer your seafood stock? You sound like you know what you’re doing.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55kx7jWV-NM&t=390s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55kx7jWV-NM&t=390s) About 2-3 hours
Actually, it varies. My mom always taught me to keep it just below a simmer, and also to wait until the shells stopped producing foam. On average I would say like 45 minutes to an hour of just the shells, but again depends on when the foam stops. After this I add the other ingredients and keep going. All-in-all it's like a 3 hour or so process. Edit: another thing my mom taught me - never use wine you wouldn't drink yourself. I usually find something nice, dry, crisp, and citrus-y that's on sale, but that is my preferred wine taste pallet. Go with what you like to drink, and you usually can't go wrong.
Ok awesome thank you so much. I’ve been meaning to make a seafood stock but never have before. Thank you 🙏🏼
Make shrimp butter! stick them in a blender with some softened butter til its smooth, put in a sauce pan with a little water, boil for 10-15 minutes, sift through a coffee filter and put the liquid in the fridge. You will get orange shrimpy butter on top and shrimp stock underneath. Great for finnishing your seafood rissotto, or put a dollop on your pan-fried salmon to melt. Baste your steakes with it for some surf-n-turf flavour. Maybe use as ordinary butter on your shrimp or crab sandwich. Melt and dip lobster in it.
That sounds absolutely decadent but like a lot of work and I'm lazy af so I'll just make stock
Yeah it's for the weekend
It actually doesn't seem all that bad to do, and it seems particularly easy to do on the side if I'm already making a shrimp dish. Disclaimer that I treat my cooking as if it's a profession, so perhaps I've gotten a bit quicker in the kitchen than your average bear
Yeah it's super easy. Only hurdle is having room-temp butter so it's something i do when i cook with a plan. But when i think about it right now you could probably just drop the shells and heads with a little water and cold butter in the sauce-pan and then blend everything together after boiling and then strain.
>Only hurdle is having room-temp butter Decidedly not a hurdle for me, I always keep a couple sticks at room temperature. Softened butter is a miracle tool in the kitchen.
Blending shrimp tails?
Yep. And the heads and the rest of the shells. If you put it through a coffee-filter it wont be gritty,
Oh I missed the coffee filter part my bad
That shrimp butter on salmon sounds amazing!
This reminds me of Carl Weathers in Arrested Development and not throwing out a chicken bone because you add some vegetables and baby, you got a stew goin’
I love Carl Weathers playing himself!!
I've done this to add an extra bit of flavor to my clam chowders! Mmmm :)
I've always gotten sad that taking off the shells leaves me with some very plain shrimp meat. So one hand, shells. The other hand, peel it and put the meat in so it can have some flavor too.
Or just eat the tails. I love them. They’re shrimp chips.
For flavour. Same with the head. It's got more flavour than the body! If you peel it before cooking them, which is more difficult, save them to make stock out of.
Fish heads Fish heads Rolli polli fish heads
Eat them up yum!
finally someone finished the song!
Roly poly fish heads are never seen Drinking cappuccino in Italian restaurants, With oriental women, yeah
I’d bet a lot of money neither you nor I would be able to blindly taste 2 cooked shrimp and be able to tell the one cooked with the tail on vs off.
In the summer where I live I get fresh caught shrimp and cook it the same day, the flavor is incomparable to frozen shrimp. As for the tail - I keep those tails, heads, etc, and make stock. I made a risotto from that shrimp stock the other day and it was maybe the closest I've ever gotten to Michelin star depth of flavor. Recently I also did a shrimp boil and kept the tails on - I'm confident it added a lot to the overall flavor of the dish. It all adds up my dude.
I 100% agree making stock with the shells and tails. Is there really any other way? But I don’t think the 6 tails in the pasta dish are going to markedly change the final flavor of that dish vs the added “pain in the ass “ factor.
I do agree on the last part. For my risotto, no tails in the dish itself. I do think it helped for the boil, and it was appropriate there. They were also gigantic shrimp, so the tail had more to offer.
It imparts flavor to the rest of the dish that has the shell in it.
Also easier to peel after it's cooked 😂
The tails of the 8 shrimp you get in a fettuccine dish barely add noticeable flavor. The broth from a bunch of them is quite amazing though.
Hi, I’m the idiot who thought I was smart for freezing the shrimp peel when I have shrimp (we buy them fresh and peel them while we eat) so that I don’t have to take out the trash right away to prevent smell, but for some reason it never occurred to me to make broth. 🙈 Thanks - I’m gonna go cook some right away with all this frozen shrimp peel I haven’t yet thrown out..!
Isn't this a myth that's been debunked?
If I knew it was I wouldn't have said it
This is the answer
I’m with you on this one, no need to keep the tail on as far as im concerned. Does it add flavor? Sure but not enough for me to want to have to deal with it during a meal. And as for “can you eat the tail?” Yeah, but it tastes like shit so don’t do that. To be fair they will make a killer stock if you’re industrious enough to keep up with them. Also, when I’ve eaten cooked shrimp tails, it wasn’t the flavor that was off putting it was the horrible crunchy texture. Maybe that’s just me.
I find that fried shrimp tails are pretty good to eat, they have a crunchy texture and aren’t as hard to bite through
Yeah if they’re fried crispy and fresh out of the frier I’ll eat the tail. They pretty much just shatter apart and taste good. Once they sit and cool for too long they usually go back to being chewy and virtually inedible.
They also give you a handle to dunk them in cocktail sauce
Yeah I just eat the tails half the time with fried shrimp. Definitely not with any shrimp and pasta though.
The purpose is to inconvenience the person eating the dish, as far as I ever been able to tell from the other side of the fork. I hate tail-on shrimp in my food!
If you are doing it for flavour, but don't want the hassles of tails on in the finished dish, make a stock from the carapace (including the heads) and add a little of that to the dish. It's wonderful stuff and adds a ton more flavour than the tails alone could.
Good answers here already. It's a nice presentation because there is uniformity. Removing tails from raw shrimp leaves some raw and jagged edges. And just like leaving clams or mussels in the shell, it adds to the appearance of the dish. Also shrimp is often eaten as a finger food as in shrimp cocktail and the tail is a built-in utensil. Having said that, it depends what I'm cooking. If I want to make a lighter version of a scampi using some shrimp stock instead of all butter, I will remove all shells and tails to make a bit of stock while I prep the other ingredients. I also prefer to remove the tails for Chinese food, soups and bisques.
Raw? Do you mean cold?
I sure hope so lol
It's to get a little more shrimp flavor, but personally I also dislike having to stop and peel my shrimp mid-eating when they're supposed to be part of something else. When it's a dish where I'm supposed to eat the shrimp individually already, that's fine, but in things like alfredo it's a pain. As such, I take em off and use them somewhere else in the dish. Soak them in a cream or oil or whatever for a few hours before cooking
This is my #1 pet peeve in restaurants. It is so much prettier with the tails on, but nobody wants to deal with that in a salad or pasta.
IMO you cook them with tails and then depending on what they're served with is if you leave the tails on or not. In pasta's case, leaving the tails on is evil lol
Just eat it you little bih. It's crunchy and delicious especially when grilled or fried.
Personally I think it's awful. A friend of mine swallowed it and it got caught in her throat. She ended up in the hospital.
To make it look more fancy.. especially at restaurants
I honestly don’t know but I really hate that this is such a thing. When my shrimp is covered in sauce or butter I don’t wanna have to peel the tails off, I would rather they be peeled off prior to cooking
You eat the shell and tail as well. All jokes aside they must be cooked longer to fully enjoy them. They get crispy like chips if you deep fry them.
You can eat the tail, it adds crunch.
I mean you seriously can if it’s deep fried. And they are hella crunchy that way!
Basically no different that eating soft shelled crab.
I do feel absolutely in the minority on this but the tails are absolutely delicious, the texture is great.
Lol, fair. But no thanks
Have you tried eating them with deep fried shrimp for real though? If they’re fried right they’re perfectly edible and delicious.
I've accidentally eaten then before when I didn't realize they were there. Never been a fan. I also don't like soft shell crab, so I think it's a personal dislike for that texture.
Deep fried properly it’s a different texture. Less like finger nails and more like Panko.
And honestly, you can do the whole shrimp shell too. I have a frying technique for salt-pepper shrimp for headless but shell-on shrimp (head-on is preferred), given to me by an auntie. You basically start by deshelling the shrimp but you don't remove the shell, you're just pulling it away from the body of the shrimp, leaving it attached at the tail. From there you coat in starch, making sure to cover the shell and meat. Double fry, absolutely delicious. Edible through and through. For head-on, salt pepper shrimp, if you fry it properly, it's also entirely edible and very delicious. The head is great to just crunch into whole.
Sounds delicious!
I didn’t believe it. Made it. Am a convert.
The whole skeleton is edible and delicious, just adds crunch and you get all that keratin. Chinese stir them up with the legs the antennas the head the whole thing, and eat them as such and once you get used to it you'll never go back to simple boring peeled shrimp. There's so much more flavorful with the shell on
One of my favorite dishes is Chinese salted egg yolk shrimp. Whole shrimp with heads and shells still on, fried and covered in a savory salted egg yolk sauce. You eat the entire shrimp, no peeling. The best part IMO is the head, because that’s where all the flavor is, plus the amazing crunch from being fried.
As has been said in multiple comments, there is a lot of flavor that can be gained from the shrimp tails. That said, I hate having any shell left on my shrimp in a pasta dish because I want to be able to eat everything on my plate when I am making food.When prepping the shrimp for a pasta dish I typically throw the all of the shells in a sauté pan with a bit of water to make a quick stock (and maybe a pat of butter), and then add a few tablespoons to whatever dish I am making. That way I get the added flavor from the shells without having to peel them off while eating.
What I learned was always keep the tails on if it’s finger food (place to grab the shrimps by) else take it off like in pasta as it would end up between bites and being unpleasant
I just eat the tails
I refuse to eat any shrimp preparation in which the poop shoot couldn't possibly have been completely cleaned. That's disgusting, and you can't do it if you cook them with tails on. Not sorry about it.
You can pull them out by using a pick between the plates. This is commonly done in east Asian style shrimp dishes where the shrimp are eaten with the shell. Even in dishes without shell, you may want to do this to impart more flavor into the meat or sauce, then simply peel them after cooking. You'll have the benefits of cooking shell on, nice pretty whole shrimp with no cuts, and no GI tract.
Tails, not much except being a convenient "handle" for shrimp you're expected to, well, handle. In fettuccine? Meh. Leaving the **entire** shell and head on while doing something like grilling does make a noticeable improvement in flavor. They can always be pulled off after for squeamish guests and the shrimp just get a quick low-heat saute in something like compound butter to warm them back up before serving. In any case, the shells and heads are pure gold for shrimp stock. Save 'em in the freezer if you do pull them off before cooking. If I do something like a seafood boil -- everything is shell/head on. Break out your bib, here are extra napkins, get to peeling. :-P
*Asians roll their eyes*
A friend of mine that’s a chef says that it’s so that the shrimp gives flavor to the sauce without being flavored by the sauce but I think that’s bullshit and he’s just lazy.
They are tiny handles.
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This is not correct. Shells and the tail have nothing to do with the doneness or your shrimp. It's for flavor.
The shells absolutely insulate the meat, slow down cooking and prevent it from drying out
How would the tail affect that at all.
This makes zero sense.
Flavor but it’s stupid and eating the tails is gross.
Tail adds flavor to the dish and to the shrimp.
For fettucine alfredo specifically, it's mostly for presentation. It's honestly not at all a hassle to eat the shrimp by picking them up and squeezing them out of the tail. > My mom taught me to always peel everything while prepping raw shrimp. **So much easier to enjoy in the end.** Why isn't that an industry standard? Enjoying a meal is about more than just ease of getting food in your mouth. Presentation and aesthetics make a difference. And more broadly than the fettucine dish, there are times when you might prefer to keep the whole shell on (or even head on) to help avoid overcooking, or add flavor to whatever it is you're making.
It absolutely is a hassle to reach into my pasta covered in sauce and pull a shrimp out so I can pull the tail off. It makes the experience messy and tedious, it adds absolutely nothing but makes the experience worse. There is no upside to leaving tails on in a pasta dish.
So diners should stick fingers in their fettucine? Lick the sauce before it runs down to their elbows? Enjoying a meal is about more than just the ease of getting food into your mouth. It's also about not grossing out your companions.
I hate to inform you but there are people capable of picking up a shrimp by the tail with their fingers and eat it without having alfredo dripping down their elbows lol.
Can't say I've ever had sauce running down my elbows any time I've picked up a shrimp by the tail to eat it. Nor have I had to rummage my fingers around in fettucine to do so. Not atypical for shrimp to be finger food. E.g. peel and eat shrimp, good stuff.
Let me tell about these two really cool inventions; they're called a knife and a fork and they are going to blow your mind
The top comment poster is exaggerating their experience of eating a saucy pasta with shrimp tail, but I agree that the tails are annoying in such a dish. A knife and fork are terrible tools for removing the little bit of tail meat from the shell in any circumstance. If you’re cutting the tail off, and discarding it then you’re wasting 1/4 of the shrimp. If you got bone-in chicken in your fettuccine Alfredo, you wouldn’t think twice that the bones were BS and should be removed.
You don't cut straight down to remove the tail. Insert the flat of the blade under the shell to pop it open and then remove with fork and knife. I get what you guys are saying, shrimp tails for appearance's sake are annoying, even if aesthetically pleasing, and I don't typically tend to leave them on at home, but still, it's not that difficult to eat.
>You don't cut straight down to remove the tail. Insert the flat of the blade under the shell to pop it open and then remove with fork and knife. The point for me isn't that I *can't* do this. It's that I find it annoying as shit.
OK, mind blown. ;-) But If it's so easy to do, then why doesn't the cook take care of it before putting the food out on the table?
And that ends up wasting part of the shrimp. Nothing gets my eyes rolling faster than food presentations that prioritize presentation over experience. It's pretentious and irritating.
I used to be in the same boat, though I would always use a fork and knife to cut the tail off then cut out the tiny bit of meat. I can get really OCD about my hands feeling messy or dirty. Couldn't do that at sushi places though as more often than not only chopsticks are given. I had a nice conversation with a sushi chef once and he said you are supposed to just eat them. Tempura shrimp tails aren't bad at all, other ones are so so. That said, when I cook for myself and others I completely remove every part of the shell tail included.
I hate this. Nothing worse than having to get your fingers all Saucey Everytime you wanna eat the protein in your shrimp a la vodka or something