Just the thought gets my gag reflex going?!? As a kid, was made aware of that little nub of shrimp in the tail that many just leave behind in either cold/steamed or fried recipes.

Was watching America's Test Kitchen a few hours ago and they featured 2 recipes where eating the entire shrimp was part of the deal. One was at a restaurant where BIG, whole shrimp were cooked on a screaming hot grill... ended up with quite a bit of char and were eaten head, tail and shells. Another was cooked at ATK. Smallish shrimp (like 35-40) were briefly brined, drained, well dried, and fried at around 380 degrees. In both cases, the ENTIRE shrimp was eaten.

Have you ever cooked/eaten them this way?

Made a comment about some food items like... if ya like it, just enjoy cuz ya might not wanna know what's in them. I know there are "acceptable" amounts of pretty unacceptable stuff that's allowed in certain foods... like rodent stuff & insect parts. I certainly don't wanna find whole crickets in a box of cereal but realize bits and pieces could find there way into a product.

Had someone tell me they know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING they eat?? I suspect next comment will be something like... after all, it's organic, or from XYZ market.

If you occasionally enjoy a plain old baloney sandwich, do you necessarily want/need to know how it's made or what ALL of the ingredients are? Do "organic" (froo froo... excuse the sarcasm) food items have stuff in them that you might not really wanna know about?

So I'm in supermarket yesterday. Corned beef is now at a great price in anticipation of St. Patty's Day... wish I had ROOM in freezer for a few, but that's another story. Half the stuff in bakery area is GREEN. There I see "Irish Potatoes"... maybe 12 candies, less than 8 ounces, around $5! Looked at ingredients... stuff like coconut and NO potato at all??

I remember my Grandmother making Irish "potatoes" on rare occasion of having one lone left-over boiled potato. A total non-recipe recipe. She'd mash up the cold potato with a fork and just add powdered sugar (she always called it 10X) until she added "enough". Final dough was like modeling clay. We'd shape it into smallish, irregular blobs and roll in cinnamon. It would sit on a plate to dry out a bit and then would be a treat after dinner.

Did you ever make them? What was your recipe?

I consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new food. I don't care much for HOT HOT stuff, so can pass on that. Can say I generally will not YUCK anybody's YUM. Growing up, we HAD to at least TRY new food. Absolutely could NOT say we "hated" something without first trying it. I find it very sad that an ADULT member of my family (by marriage) "hates" things she's never even tasted?? But that's another topic.

If I come across something I've never tried or seen before, I'm game for trying it out. Have a nice produce place that I would get all my veggies at if it was "on the way" for errands. It's not, so I usually stop in on weekends. One time, they had fresh chick peas... in the pods... inexpensive... a LOT of work for something that didn't knock my socks off. Same thing with fresh fava beans... too much work ofr glorified Lima's, imo.

Today found 3 fruit items I had never seen/tried before. TEENSY clementines... seedless, and by the time peeled were pretty much one bite... thought they were kumquats at first. Something called "sweet lemons"... round, no points like typical lemons, light-green/yellow color. NO idea what to do with them, but price made them a safe bet. Third thing I didn't buy cuz I'm CHEAP. Canned Ackee fruit... 19 oz can for $7.99. Seems if ya don't know HOW to eat/prepare them correctly, you'll end up somewhere between puking guts out to DEAD!?!

Anybody have info on those sweet lemons I bought??

Have a source for veggies/fruit that's not really "on the way" for any everyday errand or shopping trip. So, if I'm in that area, will always stop in. Veggies are nice/fresh and really good prices. This is probably a term borderline used to death... "ethnic" foods?? Must have had 9-10 different types of lentils. Wish they weren't in such LARGE quantities... cooking for one.

Anyway, on a shelf, they had jars of ghee and next to them were cans labeled "vegetable" ghee?? Would this be like "oleo" compared to butter? Would someone who uses ghee on a regular basis in their cooking use this? And how would it compare/taste?