Growing up a half-day’s drive from the Gulf of Mexico was a fortunate confluence of geography and family history which it was my great good fortune to have experienced as a kid. The memories are of snow white sand and clear ocean water, of moonlit sand crabs scurrying to their holes in the beam of Dad’s flashlight and of the blissful sensation of diving into the cool surf with a case of sunburn and getting instant relief
Just about every night in good weather you’d see the shrimp trawlers not far offshore, their decks lit up, their nets being pulled, rolling in the swells. You knew by noon tomorrow there would be fresh shrimp on ice waiting for you at the docks.
You’d get them back to the beach house, boil them in a “tea” comprised of water, onions, oranges, pepper and a package of crab boil then throw them on ice until cool enough to handle. You’d peel off the shells and dip them in your own concoction of chili sauce, Tabasco, horseradish and lemon juice and acknowledge that it was about the best thing you ever tasted. They were just as good hot, too, dipped in melted butter, splashed with a shake of Tabasco and wrapped in a piece of hot, crusty French bread. Boy Howdy, were they good!
Like the fresh smell of the surf itself, the salty aromas of shrimp on the boil can take you back to the ocean on land-locked winter days.
Sometimes at night you’d sit on the dune sharing the sounds and the warm air with friends. People on shores all around the world have been doing that same thing for many thousands of years and seeing the very same sights, and hearing the same sounds.
Today, the Gulf of Mexico and the Southern Atlantic coast are hosts to a dwindling shrimp fleet, supplying America with roughly 12 percent of its wild-caught shrimp. The other 88 percent comes from Thailand, Indonesia, Venezuela, Mexico, China and Vietnam where fisheries are exploited without the serious application of rules. Gulf and Atlantic shrimpers are now marking their product as domestic, wild caught, which should appear on their labels in the store.
The Interesting Pedigree of Shrimp Newberg
This super-rich concoction started out as Lobster Wenberg at the famous Delmonico’s in New York in 1876. A wealthy sea captain named Ben Wenberg, showed proprietor Charles Delmonico how to make a lobster cream dish and it so impressed him that he put it on his menu and named it after Ben.
Some months later these two had an argument they couldn’t resolve and Delmonico spitefully took “Lobster Wenberg” off the menu. He told Ben not to come back. However, his customers kept asking for it so he changed the name slightly (swapping the “W” and the “N”) to Lobster Newberg and it stuck. Today, Delmonico’s has on its menu “Lobster Newberg Carbonara”. The last time I looked at the menu they had it listed for $23.00. (But don’t quote me on that.)
Delmonico’s claims that it is the first true, stand-alone restaurant in America, all the others at the time being in hotels. It also claims to be the inventor of the American hamburger as well as eggs Benedict. Some of its famous patrons from the past include England’s King Edward VII, Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain.
It’s fun to serve lobster Newberg to your guests while telling them this little story.
But Since lobster is a bit too pricey for my wallet I only make Newberg sauce with shrimp but you can certainly use lobster or king crab if you prefer. At current prices, you will shell out about $62.50 per pound for lobster meat and $20 for shrimp which means if I were a shrimp I’d be worth $4,500 with clothes on and $4,493 naked. Scientists estimate the average human is about 80 percent water and is worth roughly three bucks as protoplasm. So shrimp cost actually more than we do by the pound but then we don’t have to breed in a salt marsh and then wind up in a cocktail sauce. So be happy.
Shrimp do, however, so for every acre of coastal wetland that grows a condominium there will be a few thousand pounds fewer American shrimp each year.
Shrimp is good for you, too. It contains iodine, a needed mineral which many foods lack. Also antioxidants, vitamins B-6 and B-12, selenium and zinc. Over 77 percent of a shrimp is protein.
Shrimp Newberg
You Can Do This
Gently fry 2 pounds of peeled shrimp in some oil for 2 or 3 minutes and set aside.
Then melt a half-stick of butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat then …
With a whisk blend in 2 tablespoons of flour and add some cayenne pepper.
Blend in 1 spoonful of lobster base paste or chicken base paste (this replaces salt). Then …
Add 1 pint of cream then 2 jiggers of sherry and a full teaspoon of Tabasco while whisking (the Tabasco will not make it too hot!). Turn heat to low and cook until thickened and smooth (about a minute).
Pour half of this mixture into a bowl adding 3 egg yolks. Whisk ‘em in.
Whisk the egg yolk mixture back into the other half of the sauce then …
Add the shrimp and cook for 2 more minutes.
Serve with whatever you like. I prefer puff pastry but that’s just me.
The first shrimp fishermen in America were Italians, Portuguese and Minorcans who came to St. Augustine and Fernandina in Florida, in the late 1800’s and brought with them some of the more successful fishing techniques of the Old World. You can still see active shrimp trawlers at the docks just west of downtown St. Augustine, on the San Sebastian River.
Alas, the shrimp you enjoy on your Florida vacation may well have come from offshore Yucatan or Malaysia. Atlantic and Gulf coast shrimpers are fighting an uphill battle against cheap imports and the onerous taxes and regulations of our own bumbling government. Meanwhile the salt marshes, those once vast protein factories, continue being buried under golf courses and upscale restaurants where a shrimp cocktail made with shrimp from Taiwan will set you back slightly more than your total value as protoplasm not counting the part that’s just water.
I believe if we’re careful and wise we can go on regarding the sea as a place of many gifts, shrimp notably among them. But then the catch is being careful and wise isn’t it?
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Brilliant writing! I always learn something new and fascinating when I read your column. Best of all, you never fail to put a smile on my face with your wry and witty humor.
Keep it coming! We’ll done.