When it comes to wild shrimp, retailers and restaurateurs have a wealth of product from which to select. Harvesters from both coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and Canada all process wild shrimp to fit any recipe.
Both Florida rock shrimp and small Maine shrimp have found their way onto the menu at the Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York. Executive Chef Sandy Ingber uses wild shrimp from Florida for popcorn shrimp as well as an ingredient in Tuscan white bean soup that appears on the menu a couple times a week.
The rock shrimp is also good in fried and poached presentations, he says, noting it’s “very versatile and sweet.”
Although Maine wild shrimp is a personal favorite of Ingber’s, it’s not as popular with Grand Central’s customers. “I like it as sushi,” he says, or in a Swedish dish that uses horseradish, eggs and poached shrimp. “Unfortunately, not everything that is good sells,” he says.
Following last April’s oil spill at the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon platform, Ingber says large wild Gulf shrimp became more difficult to find, as well as more expensive. Having a contract helped, he says, because he was locked in at a lower price. “But now the shrimp is 90 cents a pound more,” so he has opted for the consistency and better prices associated with Vietnamese farmed shrimp as his main choice for shrimp cocktail and salads.
Click here to read the rest of the feature on wild shrimp, which was written by SeaFood Business Contributing Editor Joanne Friedrick and appeared in the magazine’s May issue.
