Wild Caught Shrimp

[menton1]

Does anybody know if Gulf of Mexico wild-caught shrimp are available anywhere in NYC? I never buy the farm raised, tasteless shrimp anymore that accounts for 99% of the shrimp available up here today. If there were a reliable source of fresh, wild Gulf shrimp in New York I would go far and wide to get it.

[Mayhaw Man]

Why buy them in NYC when you can get them straight from the source? These guys have gotten pretty good reports from friends who have moved and have a jones for the real thing. The shipping seems very reasonable (especially if you are ordering alot, as they do it by the box load and not by the exact poundage).

See what you think of this seafood shipper. There are several others on line, but I don't know much about them.

Brooks

Edited to say sorry about the link on the first try and that I called somebody in the business in New Orleans and he reccomended these guys.

[menton1]

Why buy them in NYC when you can get them straight from the source? These guys have gotten pretty good reports from friends who have moved and have a jones for the real thing. The shipping seems very reasonable (especially if you are ordering alot, as they do it by the box load and not by the exact poundage).

See what you think of this seafood shipper. There are several others on line, but I don't know much about them.

Brooks

Mayhaw Man, this link does not work; also, if you buy at retail in NY you can probably buy smaller quantities, and not worry about shipping spoilage.

[Mayhaw Man]

Mayhaw Man, this link does not work; also, if you buy at retail in NY you can probably buy smaller quantities, and not worry about shipping spoilage.

Well the quantity part may be true, but as far as spoilage goes I would think that someone selling seafood over the counter in NYC would have less of a chance of getting the real fresh stuff than you would ordering direct from the wholesaler with no middleman delay involved. And judging by what people say that you guys pay for Gulf Seafood, the prices don't seem to extreme (although you are probably right about smaller volumes).

On the other hand, maybe you could order with a friend or two and defray expenses that way.

[Cpalms]

Menton,

keep in mind most gulf shrimp are blast frozen within hours after they are caught and very difficult to source, many fish mongers get very creative with this stuff....take mayhawman's suggestion, sound like a can't miss...but if you can get the still INITIALLY frozen shrimp, they are quite good, virtually indistinguishable from fresh...you may have enjoyed them many times and did not know it...

[Fat Guy]

I have no idea where they come from, but if you go to any of a zillion fishmarkets in Chinatown you can get shrimp that are still wriggling in the display bins. Every time I've bought them, they've been excellent.

I'll also second Cpalms's defense of high-quality, properly frozen shrimp. Some of the best Gulf shrimp, like the Royal Reds, are caught so deep, with the boats out for days at a time, that they don't really exist in any format other than frozen. The salt-brine freezing method is superb and yields shrimp that nobody would complain about. I'd rather have salt-brine frozen shrimp than live shrimp from a tank.