There are dozens of ways to serve shrimp, and most of them look like they'd make me sick. I'll use shrimp, along with other seafood, if I am making a seafood gumbo or something but, other than that, pretty much the only way I have eaten it is breaded and fried in oil. Served that way, I love shrimp. Sometimes I'll use shrimp cocktail sauce with it, but usually, the sauce isn't necessary. I don't even like sitting at the same table with someone who is eating shrimp cocktail. I think that's what it's called, anyhow. I am talking about the stuff that looks like raw, cold shrimp that is dipped in cocktail sauce. I tried one once, and it made me want to throw up. My wife likes it that way, and I don't even want to be in the same room. However, there are a bunch of ways to prepare shrimp, including a few that don't look so gross. Whole grilled shrimp looks good and doesn't sound like an entirely bad idea. The one recipe I looked called for olive oil, lemon juice, chili powder, salt, cayenne, and maybe some other stuff. At least it wasn't raw and gross looking.
We only buy Texas Gulf. Shrimp...and love shrimp. Sometimes I saute shrimp in olivevoul...with onions and peppers.then pour that over thin spaghetti...very tasty. Wouls never eat any fish raw.
I believe shrimp cocktail is cooked shrinp served cold, @Ken Anderson. At least when I used to serve it in a restaurant, that was what was served...and I cleaned up what hadn't been eaten. I seldom eat shrimp any more as many in our family are allergic to it; not the wife or myself however. Alaska shrimp are huge and look like small langoustines. There was once a commercial shrimp fishery here, but they over-fished it and they are now only available to Alaska residents as a subsistence food.
Yeah well, I said that it looks raw so I'll stand by that observation. I don't even like looking at it unless I can picture it being submerged in hot oil, preferably after having been clothing with breadcrumbs.
@Don Alaska Well, "langoustines" threw me, so I went fishing, and learned a headful quickly. This was very interesting: "In a cleaning symbiosis, the clownfish feeds on small invertebrates that otherwise have potential to harm the sea anemone, and the fecal matter from the clownfish provides nutrients to the sea anemone. The clownfish is protected from predators by the anemone's stinging cells, to which the clownfish is immune. The clownfish emits a high pitched sound that deters butterfly fish, which would otherwise eat the anemone, making the relationship appear mutualistic." From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiosis, which was from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrops_norvegicus (langoustine)
I don't eat it often because IMO it just doesn't have enough WOW for the money. I always make a shrimp cocktail for New Year's Eve but I would be just as happy with the spicy cocktail sauce on a Ritz cracker. I enjoy them in a summer macaroni salad or prepared without macaroni similar to tuna fish salad. I also like them broiled/baked scampi style with lots of garlic and a big pinch of hot pepper flakes.
I love shrimp battered and fried, the big ones, not the popcorn shrimp, and that's about it. However, I had a good friend from Brazil who made a shrimp pie from scratch for special occasions, kind of like a chicken pot pie, with fresh shrimp. It doesn't sound like it would be good, but it really was.