Shrimp & Red Snapper

El Gato

El Gato

Guest
Went to the fish market today - Jumbo Blues were $6/lb; browns $5/lb. Paid $1 for a big Red Snapper fillet. DS doen't bargain - but ended up with extra shrimp. So fresh there was NO fishy smell at all! They all said the Snapper didn't have one bone and it was excellent - best they had had (I'm not a fish eater but can do my share on shrimp).

Really get spoiled here. Toss in Sonoran Beef and it is hard to ask for more, at least for me. Not to mention the veggies and fruits are so good - I could never get them as good (or cheap) in Arizona.
 
AZ ROB

AZ ROB

Guest
El Gato I know what you mean about the fish and shrimp the one thing to look out for is weight. I stopped at the fish market last weekend to get my regular supply of fish and shrimp I didn't see the regular guy I buy from so I tried someone new. As always I had my 5lb dive weight with a certification sticker from (Washington Calibration) as I go to throw it on the scale (as I always do) he stopped and said "not that scale it is only for the Gringos" when I threw the weight up on the scale it was 3/4 lb over at 5 3/4 lb. The other scale was right on weight so it is buyer beware.
 
rockyptjoe

rockyptjoe

Guest
Yeah Rob...I did that once with the dive weight....the first scale read 7 lb. for the 5 lb. weight (giving me about 3.6 lb actual weight for the dive weight)...the vendor tried 3 different scales...including one he said was a super accurate digital scale....not one was on the money...the best was about 5.6 lbs. for the 5 lb. weight. He tried to joke it off...saying that the vendors had 3 scales...one for the Japanese, one for the gringos, and one for the locals! Another "trick" they use when selling the jumbos is to have the really big ones on top for "show"...but when they bag them for you, they dig down and grab a mix with smaller ones in there.....at $5-6 a lb. you're still getting a good deal. Sounds like the prices have come down...I bought some earlier in the year, and they were $8/7 depending on blues/browns
 
El Gato

El Gato

Guest
I believe we were at Jose's (I never know where I am!) - where we've gone before. One of the things we've always liked is that it doesn't smell bad (some of the places really smell and have lots of flies. He has always ended up adding a few extra. All the ones that he grabbed out of the chest were the Big Blues. They were soooo good. Boiled them with pickling spices - about the time you put them in the water they are ready - then had cocktail sauce with drawn butter on the top of it so when you dip the shrimp you get the cocktail sauce and the butter.
 
El Gato

El Gato

Guest
I've had both and too be honest they both are so good that I can't normally tell the difference. Maybe if I had both of them at the same time for taste testing???
 
G

garyd

Guest
Sometimes when I cook shrimp they have a bitter taste to them and sometimes they are sweet. Any idea as to why the difference?
 
J

jben

Guest
Rob et al,

Another easy way to check weight is with a bottle of water. As in "a pint, a pound .. the world around", or rather "a liter, a kilo". Whenever the guys in the malecon see the bottle of water come out, so does "the real scale".

That said, I never buy shrimp at the port anymore. I go where they go ... Productos de Mariscos is one block east of the 1st Pemex south of the baseball stadium. Last year I bought U10s (10 or less per pound, the biggest classification) for about $7/lb. U15s (which are still bigger than anything you'll find in a US grocery) were around $5. Best of all, they come frozen in a 5lb block which fit perfectly in my cooler for the ride home, no extra ice req'd. Best of all, when you buy them there, they are ALL the size you are paying for (at the port, there are smaller ones mixed in), and they are ALL blue or brown depending on what you choose. They also have awesome flounder which was under $3/lb last year.

Personally I prefer the blues because its easier to see and remove the "mud vein" (it ain't mud, and it ain't a vein), but after they're cooked, there's really no difference. As for whether they are sweet or not, shrimp, like most seafood, taste like what they eat so it depends on what they were eating when they were caught.

Of course, as I type this, i am defrosting my last box from the last trip down. Good thing I'll be back down the weekend of Oct 8.
 
AZ ROB

AZ ROB

Guest
JBEN problem with buying the bulk is I have to clean them I prefer to have them clean them at the market..
 
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