Shrimp or Prawns? Kings or Tigers?

This morning's trek to the pier was quite the foggy outing. It was so refreshing to sit there with the coffee mug in hand just taking in the breaking of a new dawn. Hubby and I sat sipping our morning "wake-up" while chatting with my brother. He was on his pier just a few hundred feet away catching mullet in his net. It was the perfect beginning of a wonderful day.

After we were back at the house, Hubby headed out to make a delightful purchase. He brought back fifty pounds of fresh shrimp! A friend of his has a large shrimp boat. The boat had just gotten back from a trip to the Gulf and had a load of the most beautiful shrimp! I was happy to get them since it seems the season for the critters in the Bay might be a bit bleak this year. I have not caught many from the pier and those that I did catch were very small. My freezer was looking a bit on the empty side! Hubby is going to get another fifty pounds so my day tomorrow will be a repeat of today...heading shrimp...peeling shrimp...bagging shrimp! It takes a couple of hours but will be well worth the effort come this winter. Shrimp will definitely be on the menu for any who visit the Little Bayou House!

This brings me to another "ponderation" though. The shrimp today were a mix brown or white shrimp. Nothing unusual about that as this is what is normally caught in the Gulf of Mexico. Then there were a few that were almost black. The meat of these was not the nearly translucent color of the whites and browns..this meat was snow white. The confusing part is all of the different tales that I have been told about these shrimp. Someone once told me that they are "King" Shrimp. I am not too sure what the term "King" Shrimp refers to but perhaps since there are only a few in each catch..they are kings of the school. A little far-fetched there but hey, whatever. I am supposing that there could be royalty in the shrimp domain! I was also told that they are not actually shrimp but prawns. On research, I found what we call shrimp are all actually prawns..so the assumption that these black shrimp are prawns seem to be a bit grasping at answers. It seems the term shrimp as we often hear it is an American term..other parts of the world call our "shrimp" "prawns". Who knew? To me "prawns" sounds a tad bit uppity..I will stick with shrimp! Another person told me "Don't eat them! They are poisonous!" Sorry, but I have been eating them just like any other shrimp ever since I can remember. So either they are not toxic or I am slowing being poisoned and do not realize it! Then I was told that they are Tiger Shrimp. This makes a bit more sense in the fact that Tiger Shrimp are black..sort of a stripey black but still black. Tiger Shrimp are mostly found near Asia but I suppose if some got lost and wound up in the Gulf of Mexico, no one would send them back home. So..with this said, I am going with Tiger Shrimp! If anyone wants to correct me on this, I would love to hear the proper name for these black shrimp. In the meantime, they are bagged with the rest of their buddies and await the frypan!