Those aren't shrimp - they're wood lice, basically. They might be delicious, but considering they come from the Marianas trench you're not likely to ever know. I've had shrimp bigger than that. I worked above a fishmonger in Seattle that often had "Colossal shrimp" that, when cleaned and deveined, weighed more than a quarter pound each and were longer than my hand. They were live-caught about 200 miles away and pretty damn tasty. The farmed Thai shrimp aren't particularly noteworthy. If you really love shrimp they'll do - "what shrimp eaters eat when they're not eating shrimp." Gulf shrimp, likewise, aren't particularly interesting. Fresh tiger prawns can be delicious. You've probably only ever had frozen. Where it's really at, though, is spot prawns: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_f... http://hamahamaoysters.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/s... Unlike gulf shrimp or tiger prawns, which are caught by big swath nets like krill, spot prawns are caught like lobsters. They're solitary little fuckers that wander around the bottom of the sea kicking ass until they screw up and become my dinner. They're covered in razor blades and their carapaces are tough as fuck. And you buy them live and you crack their heads off and you peel the carapace and OMFG they're fucking delicious. And beautiful, too. They're this lovely orangey-red with white spots after you cook them, and they're damn near honey-sweet. If you can't find spot prawns, rock shrimp are a distant second. Also cranky little fuckers that roam around beating up sea anemones, rock shrimp are almost always frozen in my experience and they're a pain in the ass to get out of the shell. I've never seen them un-processed. If you ever get a chance overseas, don't pass up this guy: http://www.rawfish.com.au/easy-moreton-bay-bugs-florentine-w... Moreton Bay Bugs, or slipper lobsters, are fucking delicious. Better even than spot prawns. Never tried them frozen; I find they're near-impossible to get in the US so I haven't tried. For the record, I find lobster to be highly overrated. Shrimp I didn't really care for until I had the real stuff. Kinda like seafood in general: growing up in New Mexico, the only thing worth eating is trout. Moving to Washington, I discovered that you can taste the difference in salmon not only in species, but in what fucking river they're caught in (Copper river is good but Yukon is where it's at).
