Where to by shrimp

My wife's church is having a fundraiser, a Mardi Gras type of deal. One of the menu items is Blackened Shrimp Skewer; however, the problem is now, where does one purchase 400 peeled (or with shell) - uncooked shrimp for something that approaches reasonabeness in price.

Try Dirk's at 2070 N. Clybourn in Chicago http://www.dirksfish.com/

I'm not sure that Dirk's will give you reasonableness.

My suggestion would be to try Isaacson and Stein on Halsted just north of Lake.

As you're planning to blacken these guys, I'd go for a place that will give you an excellent price for a lot of shrimp of reasonable quality. Got to be Costco, right?

Hammond

Costco charges about $10.00 a pound, which I think is a good deal, but I want to call around. The downside with Costco is that they only have shrimp on certain days.

HI,

Costco always has shrimp in the freezer case with and without shells. Their roadshow sales of shrimp are usually Friday-Sunday. I haven't bought shrimp at Costco lately, I had the feeling the factory sealed shrimp was slightly cheaper than roadshow.

I would also call Lobster Supreme who wholesales lobsters and other seafood to restaurants. Check the yellow pages for other seafood wholesalers.

Not quite sure where it is today, there once was (or still is) a wholesale market on Water Street. In preparation for the Italian Christmas Eve, a friend used to send her sons with lots of cash to get good deals on seafood for their dinner. You might get to wherever they congregate now to see if you could pull a cash-only deal for the church.

You probably have a church member who is in the restaurant business. He might sell you at cost whatever he can buy via a wholesaler. Near Berger Brother's Charcoal on Division (just east of the expressway on the north side of the street) is a large restaurant food store. To buy there you have to have a resale certificate (sorry the name doesn't spring to mind this moment).

I would love to know later where you did purchase your shrimp and at what price level.

Regards,

I know some of the restaraunt food suppliers will also sell to non profits providing they can show a copy of their tax exempt certificate. I have done htis as recently as last summer. I would also look inquire at Isaacson and Stein. They do sell to the public, their outlet is on Halsted just north of Lake street. I am unsure of their hours.

One of those Chinatown grocery stores would have good deals too, especially, Chinatown Market at 2121 S. Archer. If memory serves me right, they have both fresh (live) and frozen shrimp. Check out the frogs in the aquarium too. They're quite toady!

Still looking for those live shrimp. If you have current details, please share.

Clark Market, the Korean grocery on Kedzie north of Lawrence* has very nice seafood, really cheap. I saw large, head-on shrimp last night. Also, if anyone is interested, they have a nice sweet and spicy whole tiny salted crab panchan right now. Nice with beer. They seem to rotate the panchan exotica: last time it was a spicy, oily raw oyster affair that I really liked in small doses.


*Same mall as Kang Nam (dolsot bibimbap), Noli's (Albanian pizza/borek), Sahar Meats II ("Middle Eastern" butcher and general store), Jaffer Sweets (Palestinian pastry), and now Sahar's pleasant kebap place, Sahar Pita; and sharing a lot with the excellent Mexican grocery Lindo Michoacan.

PS, the new pupuseria just east on Lawrence had a decent amount of business last night, though I was in too much of a hurry to drop in.

I bought some headless shell-on shrimp yesterday at Devon market for $5/lb. But they were pretty small (40 count). They had the much larger ones, but I can't remember the price. You might call them.

Devon Market
1440 W Devon Ave
Chicago, IL 60660-1326
(773) 338-2572