hamei wrote:
I don't think it's true but the story is, they put the shrimp in a pan without water for some time ... half hour ? an hour ? and the shrimp get really thirsty. Then they pour the shrimp into a low pan of what we call white wine (basically turpentine with an alcohol content around 80 to 90 proof). The thirsty shirmps shlurp shlurp shlurp up all the alcohol, then they pour them into a bowl with some sauce. Viola, here's your dish, 150 little shrimps staggering around.
If the sauce is good they are pretty tasty. With a little practice you cna shell them in your mouth in one swift schlurp, then spit out the shell onto the table. Next !
For those with aquariums, you know the cherry red shrimp ? The ones that the fish sellers describe as "bred in Taiwan" ? The ones you thought were designed to be cute little aquarium pets ? There's a Taiwan dish, "cherry red shrimp" which is one of those rice-in-a-hot-iron-pot things. Yup. Comes with a raw egg, some veggies, and a bowl of cherry red shrimp. Pour into the rice and stir like heck. They were bred in Taiwan, yes, but I don't think for the aquarium trade.
Fried little tiny frogs are pretty good, too. Crunchy. Subtle flavoring, reminiscent of a pond, nice grass, and an evening ribbetting the ladies. It helps to be kind of drunk when you eat them.
But there's a restaraunt down the street I'm saving for when smj comes over. They have the best spicy bee larvae in this part of zhejiang. Kind of expensive but really good. SMJ deserves the best
Okay, here's a dish you cowards can actually try at home. Next time you barbecue, get some tiger shrimp. Leave the shells on. Best to get them live so you can make them go without food for a day to clean out their pooper but I'm not sure you can get that back there in the free world ? Anyway, take the shrimps in their shells and find a tinfoil pan a couple inches deep. Put the shrimps in the pan and bury them in salt. Yes, bury. Fill the pan up to cover the tops of the pile of shrimp. I bet some added seasonings would make it even better. Put the pan on the barby like you were carburizing some 8620 in a cyanide bath. Don't get it as hot though. You're on your own for figuring out how long it takes to cook - we're always kind of disabled by this step of the process, but you should be able to trial and error it out. Maybe five minutes ? Pull them hummers off the fire, dig around in the salt to find them, shell and eat. So easy even I can do it. And yummy. Almost as good as the drunk ones