🍤 National Shrimp Day - Recipes & Reviews 🍤

My earliest edible memories are of Shrimp. I grew up on the Gulf Coast in a small sportsman's paradise town in Texas called Port O'Connor. We would have Shimp-based meals morning, noon, and night because my grandfather (on my mother's side) was a Shrimp boat captain.

Mom & Shrimp Boat in Port O'Connor, Texas

 Big Daddy would bring in a box or two of fresh-caught whole Shrimp from his Gulf expeditions during Shrimp Season to eat that week or freeze for later. 

Port O'Connor Shrimp 

We had Shrimp boiled, fried, and grilled. Looking back, I now realize how good we had it, but at the time, it was so normal that our version of a special meal was a hamburger, not seafood!

My Mom learned Tex-Mex Shrimp cooking, and the first recipe I remember was her Shrimp and Rice (click on any recipe name to see my recipe blog post), and always served with Homemade Pinto Beans.

It is a simple recipe, mainly Shrimp, rice, tomato sauce, and a few veggies like onion and garlic. Check out my Mom's recipe below and make it her way.

When I visit Port O'Connor these days, my favorite breakfast is a Shrimp Taco from a local restaurant called Josie's Mexican Food. 

I highly recommend one if you are ever in the area, however, I do have a recipe so you can make your own anytime. 

Large Shrimp are expensive, but lately, I can get them at my local Latin Market Superior Grocers for less than 5 bucks per pound. Every once in a while, I find single-serving packages of frozen, cheap, small Bay Shrimp at my local Dollar Tree.

I do splurge for shrimp at my local big grocery store, Ralphs. I always check their cooked and peeled shrimp cold case for reduced prices. I like to heat them up with a little olive oil and any garden herbs I have, then pour them over cooked pasta.

Our family moved to Louisiana when I started high school. Now, Louisiana has its own way of preparing a Cajun Shrimp meal. My entry entree to Louisiana cuisine was the Po'Boy Sandwich. When I visit Louisiana now, I always go to Mike's Po-boys in Gonzales, Louisiana. My favorite is a Fried Shrimp and Oyster Po'boy Sandwich.

It is similar to a deli Subway Sandwich. Basically, a French bread roll plus fried seafood, and dressed with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and mayo. 

Most fried seafood in the South has a cornmeal coating instead of flour, so the bites are extra crunchy. I have a Fried Catfish recipe that you can substitute with peeled Shrimp, just click here to see how we do it.

All along the U.S. coasts, most communities have Seafood Boils consisting of shellfish and veggies like corn and potatoes covered with water and flavored with a package of spicy spices. 

In Louisiana, they boil crawfish and shrimp with sausage, too. 

Normally, the veggies and sausage are boiled until done, then at the end add whole raw shrimp. Shrimp only takes 5 minutes to cook through. If you like your Shrimp spicy, turn off the heat and let them sit in the spicy broth for another 5 to 10 minutes.

You know how to peel a shrimp, right? Grocery stores sell their Shrimp peeled or unpeeled. Peeled shrimp are more expensive, so I usually buy shell-on and peel them myself.

If you buy shrimp with shells and heads, it's easy to pinch off the head first. Next, remove a couple of shell segments, peeling them away where the legs connect. Finally, pinch the tail and pull off the remaining shell. Your speed of peeling will get faster and easier with practice.

The dirty little secret of Shrimp is the digestive tract that runs along the back. Some Shrimp have them and others may not show one. They taste a little like dirt. If you look along the back of a peeled shrimp, you can sometimes see the small black string of the digestive tract.

For boiled Shrimp, you obviously don't remove the digestive string. My Mom likes to remove them when she fries Shrimp. It's up to you if you want to remove it. Smaller Shrimp do not have one that you can detect.

If you peel a head-on Shrimp, look out for the sharp spine jutting from the top of the head when you go to pinch it off. It's sharp like the tip of barbed wire.

Louisiana has a couple of regional Shrimp recipes I know you will like from my nephew Matt, who cooks in Bergeron's City Market, an award-winning Baton Rouge restaurant.

Matt's recipe of Shrimp and Cheese Grits is the bomb! We always have a good time making cooking videos together, and sometimes things do get a bit out of control, as the video below will testify. I brought the beer, and Chef Matt barely got through the recipe due to my bad influence, so check it out below.

New England has Clam Chowder, and Louisiana has Shrimp and Corn Soup. Check out how Chef Matt makes this local specialty soup, so rich and creamy.

A Shrimp Slider is tiny and tasty. I used a small package of cheap cooked Bay Shrimp and mixed in mayo, bread crumbs, onion, celery, and some egg to make a Shrimp Patty. Click here to read all about it. 

Shrimp frozen meals are hit or miss, but I found a couple of good ones. The following frozen meal reviews use products I found a few years ago.

On my Cheap$kate Dining Scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best, my rating of Lean Cuisine's Shrimp & Angel Hair Pasta gets a....well, click here to read about the rating.

My next frozen Deal of the Day has a very high rating. Just how high is a click away, here. Shrimp & Orzo, courtesy of Contessa, packs a lot of flavor in a small bowl.

I'll leave you with a little levity. I once took a Vegas trip years ago when they had 99-cent Shrimp Cocktails in casinos. Seeing is believing, so make sure to check out my Vegas video below. The Shrimp Cocktail scene starts a couple of minutes in.

National Hoagie Day - Recipes & Reviews

I learned what a Hoagie is when visiting my wife's family in Philadelphia. Hoagies come from there, and you can get the sandwiches at local bars, delis, and sandwich shops. To see my recipe version, you can scroll to the end of this blog post to see how I make mine. There's no cooking, it's about how you stack it!

Click on any photo to see it larger.

They are composed of cold cuts, deli meats, and cheese (provolone) with a typical sandwich with tomato, onion, and lettuce, drizzled with an oil, dried herb, and vinegar dressing, on a soft Italian-style roll. 

If you like a fast-food Subway Italian B.M.T., Spicy Italian, or a Cold Cut Combo Sandwich, you will like a Hoagie.

Happy Hour Hoagie

Check out my slideshow visit below to Happy Hour Tavern in Levittown, Pennsylvania, for my first real local Hoagie. The bar is attached to Dale's Deli. Of course, it was a delicious Hoagie Sandwich along with a bag of Charles Chips, and a limited edition Yuengling Hershey's Chocolate Porter beer!

My first Hoagie Sandwich in Levittown, Pennsylvania

Slideshow

I didn't realize it, but growing up, we used to take a Southern version of a Hoagie to school, but we called it a Baloney and Cheese Sandwich. The main difference was that mine was served with plain sliced white bread. I liked mine with the addition of mayo, lettuce, pickle, and tomato. 

The Hoagie is Italian-American in origin at the turn of the 20th Century. A Hoagie is claimed to be the "Official Sandwich of Philadelphia." You can read all about the origins as well as various versions here. A real Hoagie is always served cold, not heated like a similar Submarine Sandwich.

Some say the Hoagie is derived from the Tin Pan Alley songwriter and actor Hoagy Carmichael. That's a bit of a stretch, but both came on the scene about the same time.

Two or three deli meats are laid out in a typical Hoagie. The main deli meat is Salami, which I came by from my late 99c only Store and Dollar Tree.  Other deli meats that can be included are Capicola, Prosciutto, and Pepperoni. 

For cheese, a Hoagie has slices of Provolone cheese. Provolone is a mild soft cheese similar to Mozzarella (a fine alternative cheese) that shows up on your typical pizza.

I once discovered a vegan Provolone a couple of years ago...hmmm, can't say it tasted anything like a slice. 

For a Cheap$kate Hoagie Sandwich, you can substitute a meat filling of bologna, ham, and pepperoni -- now those are the cheapest deli cuts.

As for a cheese substitution, use any fave like Monterey Jack, Colby, String Cheese, Cheddar, and even good old American Cheese. 

Check out the meat and cheese list for Hoagies from a great sandwich shop in Philadelphia called Jack's Place.

And here is a slide show of Linda and my visit there, a stop I definitely will make again, next vacation.

 Hoagie Sandwich from Jack's Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Slideshow

A Hoagie is all about the bread, too. The bread roll is of the Italian variety - a soft roll.

I find that six-inch rolls you get in the bread department of most grocery stores are a similar type of roll. Local Latin markets have a roll called Bolillo. In Louisiana, our French Roll for a Po-Boy is about the same. I'm sure your local bread purveyors have a version that will fill the bill.

Now, hot dog buns and steak rolls are a bit too soft, but I guess they will do in a pinch? Rolls with a crunchy crust are best.

I like my sandwiches with mayo and mustard, but a Hoagie has an Italian Dressing mix of oil, vinegar, and sometimes dried oregano. Just drizzle the Dressing over the inside of the bread and cold cuts.

Lettuce, sliced tomato, and onion complete a Hoagie Sandwich. I've had the sandwich served with yellow vinegary pepperoncini or milder banana peppers, and a bag of salty potato chips.

Wow, this is such a tasty blog post...please excuse me, I'm off to make myself a Hoagie Sandwich right now -- won't you join me? Just follow my Hoagie Sandwich recipe video below and make your own.

Hoagie Sandwich - Recipe Video

Play it here, video runs 3 minutes, 52 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.