Eating shrimp without getting your hands dirty

Growing up, my dad would teach us how to eat properly and one of this is how to peel shrimp without using your hands. Normally, as kids, we would just take off the head with our bare hands, peel off the shell and tail then pop it into our mouths after dipping it in some lemon butter or butter garlic sauce. (Yum.)

The kids would argue with him that there is no fun in eating shrimp with utensils. He would counter that it is best to learn how most specially when the time comes it may come in handy. So with displeasure we had to learn the art. Honestly, it was difficult at first and tiresome. We weren't able to eat as much as we wanted and the process took more time that we lost our appetite.

But that was many years ago. Now that we have mastered the art everything is just a cinch. Thank you dad for taking the patience in teaching us.



How to Peel Shrimps Using a Fork and Knife:

1) With a fork, pierce the part of the body near the head for a firm hold. The shrimp is now lying on it's side. Using your butter knife or dinner knife, decap the shrimp's head (the carapace).

2) Place the tip of the knife right on the legs and try to scrap off the legs (or the swimmerets). This will leave an opening and would make it easier to peel off.

3) Now pierce the fork where the swimmerets used to be.

4) Insert the tip of the knife in between the shrimps body and the shell. Push back the shell away from the body to a point that the shells would detach away from the body. Continue this until the shell have been taken out. The tail may be sliced off or peeled off.

I would say that practice makes perfect but nothing beats eating shrimp using your hands.