Sustainable shrimp?

I love shrimp, but it seems like most of the shrimp in the grocery stores is farm raised shrimp from Vietnam or Thailand, and I prefer not to buy that stuff. When I was down in NOLA for jazzfest in May, I had lots of gulf coast shrimp that one of my sisters who lives down there bought at the farmer's market and one of the local grocery stores for $6 a pound. The day that I flew back, my sister took me to a farmer's market near Tulane, where they were out of the $6 a pound shrimp, but I got some smaller shrimp for $5 a pound, and wrapped it up really well, and added a freezer pack to the bag, and carried it on the plane. When I came back here, I looked in Jewel, Mariano's, TJ, and WF, and the cheapest gulf coast shrimp I could find was $16 a pound, which is more than I can afford. I am not even sure if TJ had gulf coast shrimp.

Is there anywhere in the Chicago area to get it cheaper, or are there any other sustainable shrimps out there? What about shrimp from Argentina? On chowhound people love Argentina shrimp from TJ's, but it is often not available, and is it sustainable? Mariano's has some frozen shrimp on sale for $10 a pound right now, but I am not sure where it came from. Thanks, Nancy

The last two years, the only shrimp I have been buying is Gulf shrimp from the Fabian seafood truck. I separate the shrimp into one-pound portions and freeze them in water. I have three left in the freezer and hope to buy some more for the winter before the last Fabian run up here to the Chicago area this fall. I also have some of their crabmeat in the freezer. I seem to always catch them when they have already sold out of red snapper.

I have seen frozen Gulf shrimp at Mariano's, too. I think I posted about it on LTH in the past, but at the moment, I can't remember the company name. I'll do some searching and post back if I can find it.

I seem to remember that Jewel --- or was it Dominick's? --- used to occasionally sell large (5 lb?) bags of frozen Gulf shrimp. I keep an eye out for it.

I'm not sure what you mean by sustainable in this context, NFriday, but if you mean you'd rather buy Gulf of Mexico or South American shrimp than southeast Asian shrimp, I'm with you on that.

I like the Argentinian pink shrimp. Heinens always has them and occasionally puts them on sale, usually for about $20 for a 2 pound bag. These are decent size shrimp, usually 16-20 or 21-25 count so that is a pretty good price. I saw them on sale at Jewel once for even less. They come in a couple of different styles, whole, deveined, butterflied (which I think they call griller shrimp) and they are not all always available so make sure you know what you are getting. I have seen Texas brown shrimp on sale for around $12/lb at heinens for 21-25 count but not recently. Most stores usually have some sort of wild gulf shrimp available though the price can vary widely. You definitely need to buy them when they are on sale.

-Will

check out Pete's for golf shrimp at a reasonable price.

Katie- Thanks for the info about Fabian seafood. I had never heard about them before. I just signed up for their emails. I just hope they do delivery anywhere near Evanston. When I looked on their Facebook page, they mentioned that they delivered to Naperville and Elgin right about the time the hurricane hit Texas. I hope all of the hurricanes don't put a damper on their supply of seafood. I just noticed today that gas has gone up another dime since yesterday. Thanks, Nancy

Pete's is too far for me. I have a Valli a mile from me, but I did not see any gulf coast shrimp there the last time I was in the store. Thanks, Nancy

susan13 wrote:check out Pete's for golf shrimp at a reasonable price.

Yep. Pete's does a really good job sourcing shrimp.

NFriday wrote:Katie- Thanks for the info about Fabian seafood. I had never heard about them before. I just signed up for their emails. I just hope they do delivery anywhere near Evanston.

I frequently get their shrimp - usually the collossal, 10 -12/lb, never frozen. I think I paid $17/lb last time. Their closest to Evanston stop is Mount Prospect Farmers Market, Sunday mornings on the weekends they're in the area.

Fresh Farms has Gulf shrimp, 16-20 @ $14.99/# yesterday.
These come in 20 # boxes if you want and any lessor amounts and are outstanding! But yesterday no discount because I was told the Hurrucane had caused the supply to drop.
I passed because the last time I purchased, I got them for $12.99.
They have a smaller size at a lower price.
I don't purchase any Asian shrimp as they are mushy and who knows what environmental problems and/or contamination they have?
I can wait a month or two for supply to be back to normal if that's truly the case.-Richard

Are the Fabian shrimp head-on? I am looking for a good source of Gulf shrimp with the head and shell still attached.

Cyriaco wrote:Are the Fabian shrimp head-on?

No