Tips for Buying Shrimp

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Rich Buccola here in NYC and on behalf of Expert Village today I'm going to show you how to make shrimp cocktail. I believe that sometimes if you have a fresh seafood market you should definitely go. I go to my seafood market two or three times a week. They know me by name, I'm not saying that helps but you know what if you're frequent your local butcher and stuff, he's going to take care of you better. Going into the supermarket and trying to buy beautiful shrimp like this I don't believe it's going to happen I'm not trying to knock the supermarkets. But I will tell you in this segment what to look for when you buy shrimp. You see how this shrimp has a nice bend or a nice rounded back that is what you are looking for. I pull it back and it will actually go right back to that bend to that firmness and to that shape. You also want to be able to press the shrimp, if you press the shrimp and it doesn't go back to its original shape or leaves an end dent in it, you don't want to buy that shrimp. But the most important thing you want to do is smell it. If you smell it, it shouldn't have a real fishy or it shouldn't be slimy either, you shouldn't feel it, it should feel beautiful. It should be translucent like this, it shouldn't smell like fish, that is a beautiful good shrimp. What you don't want to see and this is a real easy way to tell that bad shrimp it will actually still be good to eat but it is really passed its prime or its time as they say when you see little black circles on your shrimp. If you see little black circles all over your shrimp don't eat those shrimps especially if you take it off and it's on the actual, if it's not on the shell but actual on the skin of the shrimp (the meat) don't eat the shrimp it's passed their time. Remember you want to look for smell and if it's slimy and the firmness you want it to be firm and you want the shrimp to be translucent. Go out and buy good shrimp. "