The Gulf Coast Food Show
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The Gulf Coast Food Show
A Mississippi Culinary Journey, Olives to Shrimp
Hey there! Have you ever had an experience where exceptional customer service turned an ordinary meal into an unforgettable culinary adventure? Let me tell you about my recent trip to Shaggies, a restaurant nestled in Pass Christian Harbor. Our weekend getaway was made even more special by our amazing waitress, Jazzy. She recommended the sautéed crab claws and the firecracker shrimp po'boy, which were both out of this world! But it wasn't just the food - Jazzy's friendly and accommodating service made our experience truly unforgettable.
In this chat, we'll talk about everything from restaurant etiquette to the curious art of shrimp preparation. We'll share tips on how to pop off shrimp heads and even craft spider legs! Plus, we'll explore the intriguing world of salads. You'll learn all about the enigmatic Castelvetrano olive salad, its fascinating origins, and its mesmerizing effect on your tastebuds. And if that's not enough, we'll also take you on a journey through the history of lettuce, from the Romans' love for Romaine to its status as a culinary superstar today.
Whether you're a food enthusiast, a restaurant owner looking to up your customer service game, or just someone who loves chatting about all things culinary, this episode is sure to delight you. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into the wonderful world of food!
Yes, I know it's Monday. In fact, you know what time it is right now it's Monday, 5.48 pm and we're supposed to have the show out. I keep telling you Saturday, sunday at the latest. Oh, we just had a crazy busy weekend. It was fun, so we put it off. One day Big deal, great show coming up. Yes, we did, it was a busy weekend, but it was fun. It was fun. It was a lot of work. We did some. Well, we did a little yard work. We did a little. You know the typical things, but we did a bunch of other stuff too and it was fun.
Speaker 2:It was a nice weekend, beautiful weather. We haven't been getting any rain down here at least. I don't know about where you live, but, boy, extreme South Mississippi, right on the coast, no rain. Watched the weather this evening and said next 10 days, no rain. Hmm, well, that's OK, that's all right. We can still have a good time, as they say.
Speaker 2:So what have we been doing with restaurants? I want to tell you it's interesting here. I want to tell you about two places we went to, and not so much about the food, although the food was good, it was fine. No complaints, no, nothing. I just I want to share with you what we are experiencing with the waitresses, and I know that we have restaurant owners and management. They tune in and I hope that in the right way they can kind of latch on to what we're saying here and look, we're just a few little people but we love the restaurant scene.
Speaker 2:My wife and I, we try to eat. We try to go to 80, 100 restaurants a year and try to go to different ones, and we don't go just. I go and I love to sit and watch, watch the wait staff, the waiters, the bus boys, the whole thing, and just see the whole operation and how it's working. And I tell you what. What a nice operation. A couple of restaurants that we're going to talk about today. And I'm going to tell you why. And I think that you'll agree, I hope you do. And when you go to a restaurant and wherever you live and you go to a restaurant, I think that you appreciate the same type of things that we're going to talk about.
Speaker 2:What one of them is this? I know you don't know where this is If you don't live in this area. Pop up a map on something and look at past Christian Harbor. There's going to be a restaurant there called Shaggies. Right behind, in fact, coincidentally right behind Shaggies, about 100 feet, is where I used to park the shrimp boat. The 62 foot Bellamia was parked right there. That's where we docked it. But anyway, shaggies is the name of the place.
Speaker 2:Now, from what I understand, I think in the past couple of years, maybe more, now it's new ownership. And here's what is so interesting about the place. First of all, the food is. We have had nothing there and we've tried all kind of things. I don't go and just get the same thing over and over. I try to just order all different things, variety, just to see what the quality is of the different levels the baked, the fried, the po' boys, the whole thing.
Speaker 2:So my wife and I went there and we're trying to figure out what to order and our waitress comes up and I see her name on it. It says Jazzy. It may be a nickname or what have you, but anyway, the first impression even walking into place great hostess, would you like to sit outside? Would you like to sit inside? Where at inside would you like to sit? Because there was a little music thing going on and I don't particularly like to be close to that. Oh, they were very accommodating.
Speaker 2:So we go to sit down and the young waitress comes and what a pleasant, pleasant young lady. My wife and I both, when she left, were both commenting like what a pleasant young lady. Just the whole thing about I don't know. Have you ever gone to a restaurant and the waitress or the waiter, and regardless of age, they come up to the table and, man, it's almost like there's a oh boy, I don't know, something's wrong. Maybe he's mad or having a bad day, or you know, I don't know, it's just this, not this real pleasant kind of happy look, you know, it's only you give him a pair of boxing gloves and it did boxer right there, you know.
Speaker 2:So she, she comes up Just as pleasant as can be, and we're trying to decide what we're gonna get. And we said, well, I don't know, do we want an appetizer or not? And I said, how would the firecracker shrimp here? And she, oh, that that's a very good choice, they really are good. And I said, you know, I don't know. I said my wife likes to crab claws, maybe, maybe. I said, now, I'll just let her decide, let's go ahead and get what you want. She said, well, I'd like to crab claws. And she, okay, do you want them fried, do you want them sauteed? And so we debated on that for like 30 seconds and the little waitress she says look, I tell you what you know, just for what it's worth, the sauteed are Excellent. They are very, very good here. And so we figured you know what, okay, we're gonna go with that. And we did. And then, before she left, she said look, if you really want to try the firecracker shrimp Because I mentioned about getting a shrimp po boy to a fried po boy she said look, why don't you go ahead and get the shrimp po boy? I'm gonna bring out a little dip in sauce of the firecracker sauce, and now you get to have both really. And I said you know what? That is just a wonderful idea, let's do that. And so that's what we did.
Speaker 2:The the crab claws come out. Well, I'm looking at them like Did they accidentally double the order? Maybe they thought we wanted two orders and they put them all in one bowl. That really that that's what I was thinking, you know. And so to sad them down, and and my wife too she said boy, that's a lot. I said, yeah, it is, it really is. And they were nice. You know this is one little, little bitty stuff. This was some nice crab claws. You know, some nice, beautiful meat on them. So, anyway, we start eating and and and they're not disappearing. You know, we're eating and eating and it's like they every time you ate. One, two appeared. Well, anyway, I said carry. I said, can you believe how many crab claws we're getting here? Well, I said, look, I tell you what. Let's count them. So here's what we counted 47, 47 crab claws on Appetize. It was about Give a take a dollar or two, it was. It was, I think it was like $21. I think maybe 2020. It was right at $20, say.
Speaker 2:And you talk about a good flavor. They were fresh. You could. You, you know, I know seafood well. You put crab claws in front of you that that old or even kind of old.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're gonna smell them. You're gonna know it doesn't mean it's gonna hurt you. You know it doesn't mean is bad for you. It's just that it's gonna smell a little fishy. Now, and that's what. Anything like fresh fish. When you have fresh fish, like salmon, you know, if you get real fresh salmon, you fillet it and hold it up to your nose and smell it, you know what you're gonna smell. Nothing, nothing that. That that's what you should smell when you're, when you're smelling fresh fish. That doesn't mean you're not gonna. You know, smell a hint of a Different something going on, but you're not gonna. You're not gonna say, oh, that's fish. No, it may be two days, two days from now, you're gonna say that, but anyway, that that was the deal with these crayon claws.
Speaker 2:The other thing, and this is what stood out, and this is what I hope that you notice you probably do. You know when you go to a restaurant, this particular place, now, the, the, when I talk, I'm talking about professionalism, the, the, the restaurants. I talk about a lot of restaurants here on the coast and they all, I would say, are professional. Here's what. What stood out About shaggies.
Speaker 2:Okay, and this isn't the first time, this is, I would say, the third time that I've really noticed this is the staff. They understand the menu, they know the menu, the manager, now, the young guy, his, I think his last, I know his last name is Celia. I don't know his first name, this young guy, I'm gonna tell you he's hustling. He's not the manager on. You know, on paper, this guy's, I'm watching him. He's all over that restaurant, he's checking with people, he's checking with the waitresses, checking with is everybody got their orders on?
Speaker 2:I mean, this place is running like a clock and what's nice about it is that when you're sitting back and you see a staff in any, regardless of where you live, and you go to a restaurant, you probably can appreciate what I'm saying here and you see the restaurant just running like a clock, you know, and even if they busy in your foods just a little bit late, you know, just just a couple of minutes, and you're saying, but you see everybody really working, it's okay, you know. You're like, okay, they busy, but boy, look at them, they hustling. How can you get upset with that, you know? So the I guess the long and short of this is when you see a restaurant like this, you can tell right away you know these, they have a system down, they work in the system and the waitresses and wait staff, all of them are right in there working along with whatever system they put together. So it just showed, it shined. It really did, in particular Jazzy, what a wonderful little waitress. You know, you know, I don't know, my wife and I both we said, boy, if every waitress could be like this, that would be great.
Speaker 2:But there is another one, similar the same. Earlier in the week we went back to Long Beach, dacri, and again, this applies to where you live. This applies to where you live. The young lady's name was now I tell you what. And she told me on a tag it was Lexi. But my wife said it was Lexi May Boy, I'm goofing a name up, but what have you. But whatever it is, it was Lexi. She told us about it, it was her dad's name and mixed in with Lexi and so, but her name tag was net Lexi. Anyway, again same thing. My wife and I both were like now we went to this restaurant first before we were talking about with the crab claws. So we went to this one first and first impression was just 100%. And after chatting with her a little bit, she has a little boy, her and a husband.
Speaker 2:They relatively new to the area it may be four or five years to the area and just a pleasant, pleasant waitress. And isn't it true? You get any of these waiter or waitress. You know you're sitting down. You had a long day, a long week, and you outed with your wife out to eat. You just wanna be served and you want some, just some calmness. You know, no drama. Sometimes you get that with waitresses or waiters. Man, he come up and, like I said, are you ready to put the boxing gloves on? And I'm like, yeah, I'm just here to eat. Okay, I just wanna eat, I'll pay you money, you know, and it's just, I don't know it. Just it adds so much and I guess that speaks to the management who screens the waitresses that they're gonna hire and make sure that, okay, they're not the, you know, I don't know, sometimes waitresses can be, or waiters can be, over talkative, you know, at the inappropriate time you're trying to eat and look, they just trying to be nice. But that's where training comes in training. So, for what it's worth, when you find a place that has and I've talked about this before, I tell you you, put these two together you find a very good waiter or very good waitress and they have clean restrooms, you're probably gonna get a good meal, you're gonna have a good experience there. So, anyway, look for what it's worth. Those things matter. That's something that we notice in restaurants and you know it's true. When we see the opposite of that we know we're gonna have a mediocre, a bad meal, and it's almost always true, you know. So that's our little excursion into restaurant etiquette management, waitresses, waiters.
Speaker 2:Well, here's you. Remember my friend, my Cajun friend, gary Pokey, from Down in Galliano. We talk in the other day and I think we talked about this a while, a long time ago, but the subject come up because you know the big white shrimp are in now. You know they coming out the marsh, big white shrimp. And so we talk and he said Tim, he says you know what I did the other day? I made some spiders. You know what spiders are and he does a great job with them.
Speaker 2:So what you do is you take the head of a big shrimp you know the 16, 20, 10, 15s, the big ones, you know and after you pop the head off, you look at the head now and you're gonna see yellow fat. Oh, that's good, the yellow fat. There's a little meat in there. And what you do is you take the top of the shell and you hold it and you pinch Right, right, right under the eyes, pinch, and you pop off all of the legs. That come off and then the rest of ugly stuff stays inside. But you get a little meat, you get the legs and you get the fat. And now you know what you do with that. You're lightly dusted. You could put cornmeal, if you want, you could put flour, you could put cornmeal mix A lot of salt and pepper, and you throw it in and deep fry. And just I forgot to ask him.
Speaker 2:I know when I do mine, man, I'm going to tell you what it's. A minute or less. A minute or less, probably less. If I had in 350 degree oil, yeah, I'd say probably. You're starting to pull them things out at 35, 40, 45 seconds. You're taking them out, but you test them, but at any rate you deep fry them things just a little bit. And, man, that fat and the legs and the little bit of meat in there, and it's just a whole different part of the shrimp and so it's going to taste different.
Speaker 2:But they sell these things as appetizers now at restaurants and it's called spider legs. They call them different things. But here's the beautiful thing If you out and you buy some shrimp, especially if you can get your hands on some fresh shrimp the big ones now, and you're popping the heads off, man, if you want to take a few more minutes and pop the shell off with the little pointed tips on it and the eyes. Take that off and I'm going to tell you what you're left with a beautiful little, unique piece of seafood. It's delicious, it really is.
Speaker 2:Every time we get big shrimp and we peel in them. I get maybe like 100, 150 pounds every year off the boats and I peel them and then I take maybe I don't know 20 pounds or so of them and I'll make spider legs and I'll freeze them and then you take a little pack out when you're frying some fish, you throw them in there and then you have another little dish. But anyway, it's a wonderful little thing you can do with the shrimp. So if in your area you can get your hands on some fresh shrimp, I'm going to have to see. I have a lot of friends up north. I'm going to ask them what is that? Because there is some shrimp farms up north.
Speaker 2:Now can you still get them fresh and I say fresh, they could be IQF, individually, quick frozen, that's OK, just as long as they're not been frozen for six, eight months at a time. You get them, and I bet you could do the same thing with them Defrost them slow, put them in the refrigerator, let them defrost slow. That's the key when defrosting stuff, especially seafood, and all, defrost it slow and you're going to come up with some beautiful, beautiful seafood. So my buddy, gary, called me, reminded me of that. I said, man, look, let me tell these people about this. And just a reminder anyway, so that you'll maybe you'll do it. We'll see. Now we have to update something. Do you remember?
Speaker 2:My buddy Charles from Mobile, alabama, came in and we talked about his sister's recipe. She's from Spain and she has a recipe of anti-pasta olive salad. And I tell you I've made this stuff along. We're on our last. In fact, I have the last jar in front of me because I have to get some correct spelling for you on something I have the last jar in front of me that we made. But the recipe and the way it turns out is extremely unique and very, very good and worth your time to make it.
Speaker 2:Now, when I described it originally, I said you know what, when you make this, because it says olive salad right, olive salad. And I said you know what, when you bite into it, you're not really going to say, oh, that's a bunch of olives. I forgot to mention one thing, oh, and I forget, but I didn't clarify it enough, and it's very important. It's a certain type of olive that you want to use, because I'm going to tell you the truth is, you know, you make a martini and the olive that's in there, I don't like that olive. You know it's. I don't know, man. It's too salty, it's too sour, it's too I don't know. But that's why I was skeptical. This was years ago when Charles had me try some of this. That's why I was so impressed with it.
Speaker 2:Now, here's what it's made with. It's Cast Vel Trino, cast Vel Trino olives. I'm a spell it for you, because if you're one of those people that said you know what, I just don't like olives, I mean, I don't want that, I don't like olives. Give this a try. It's going to change your mind when my wife buys these by the jar and then even in some time, you can't just take one out, you might eat half the jar. That's how good they are, because I'm going to tell you they're not mushy and salty and sour, and gives you that look on your face. You know, when you eat it, it's not that, it's not that they firm, but they not mushy, they tender and they crisp, but at the same time kind of buttery. You know, it's not like, it's unlike any olive I've ever eaten. It is totally, totally different.
Speaker 2:So if, even if you're not going to make the olive salad, it's on the website. I believe the recipe is on the website or you can go to the show that we featured it on and listen to it. But here it is Okay. So it's a pitted Italian, italian olive. C A, s, t, e, l, v E T R A N O. That's the olive that you want If you're going to do anything with olives, you know, I hope, I hope you, you try, trust me on this, um, because it's not going to be the same olive that you've been eating.
Speaker 2:You're going to taste it and you're going to say, oh boy, this is good. Now, sure, it has a tiny bit of that that olive you know taste, but once you start chewing on it and it starts breaking up a little bit, it's like, oh boy, oh, this is real good. So if you make the anti pasta olive salad that we talked about, um, what you're going to come away with is a salad that's called olive salad, but you're not going to taste it and say, oh, that's a bunch of olives, even though it has a lot of olives in it. So, anyway, look up the recipe. It's on the website.
Speaker 2:We did a show on it, very unique. And let's see the brand. I'm going to tell you the brand that puts out the cast of Val, toronto. Cast of Val, toronto. Uh, olives is M E Z Z E T T a. So a Mazzetta family, uh, that's that's who puts it out.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to tell you what I don't think you'll, I don't want to, I don't think you'll ever look at olives the same I really. That's how impressive these olives are. So go buy you some. What's it going to hurt to spend you a few dollars on some olives and now you're going to be addicted to them and you'll be calling and saying, uh, you know you need some, uh, some help on this addiction you have. So, no, they really are good, they very good. So go try them. So what else? You know what I was reading the other day? This was so interesting. I love to see little love to learn little tidbits about, uh, about foods, and, and and the origin of things, and and and where the the names come from. So we shop and we buy in some letters for salad. We have, and I was like this is you know iceberg salad.
Speaker 2:We're in a world, we're in a world. Does that come from iceberg salad?
Speaker 2:Well um, it was here, from what I understand, until is I don't 1920s, 19, 1920s, say it was called Chris pad. It was called a Chris pad, that that was the name of it. Um, but then, after you know, after that, california became like they were the place that grew this type of letters. In fact, they, they, uh, it's like 70, 80% of the country. They supplied with this CRISPR or a crisp head lad letters. Well, the way it's got its name was they were shipping so much of it so quick that they'd put a layer down and in a layer of crushed ice, a layer down, layer of crushed ice. And then, when it was, I guess, somewhere along the line, when they started receiving it or purchasing it, they would say, hey, I want some of that iceberg letters. The name stuck and there you go, we call it iceberg letters now. And then, if you have Romain, Romain letters, here's how it got its name. Now, I didn't know this, I looked it up, but it says that it's called Romain letters because the Romans admired it. It had a real healthy appearance and they admired that the Romans did. And in fact, it says that the emperor Augustus put up a statue praising the letters for curing him of illnesses. Now, I don't know if that happened or not, but they did make a statue of it, of Romain letters, because the Romans admired this letters so much. Well, who would have thought, you know? But look, that's what we get to learn here on the Gulf Coast Food Show. That's why we're so ahead of the culinary definitions, because we find them out here. So there we go Now.
Speaker 2:We did talk about briefly the big white shrimp, right? So I'll tell you this one more time, probably two more times, because the cool snap down here lasts another, you know, maybe another month or two, to where we just get cool snaps. You know, you wake up in the 50s and you're in the 80s in the evening and it does that, you know, for months, up until late December maybe. So the big shrimp heads, the big shrimp and the big shrimp heads, where do you get? Well, right now the weather's just fantastic down here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and every way you look there's people with the cast nets. I told you, remember, I told you about the cast net man. They down here throwing the nets and they're catching these big shrimp coming out of the marsh and those are the ones that you want, because they're gonna have the big you know, obviously the big shrimp. You're gonna have the big heads on them. You pinch that off and you make the.
Speaker 2:But the point is this there's just nothing like going out there and throwing a cast net and catching your fresh seafood right off the seawall. Now, from what I understand, there's places all over up north there's rivers, there's all kinds of places and there's different type things you can catch with cast nets. Obviously, some places I don't think it's legal in freshwater to throw a cast net, so I don't know where it is where you are. But here's the thing. Yeah, when you're throwing this cast net so you might block you off I say block you off you have like a hundred foot on the seawall that you make your little marks, maybe 30 foot apart, and you're throwing your net there and you might wanna take some.
Speaker 2:Some people take cat food. You know that cozy kitten in the can, cat food. Well, you take that, punch holes all up in it and then you get you a string and put through the holes because you don't wanna leave the can in there. You throw the string out there, throw the can out there with the string on it. Right, you throw it maybe. You know 10 foot off the seawall and you do that about every 25 feet.
Speaker 2:So you got, say, three places that you're doing this right, and you're walking up and down, you're taking turns. You know on which area you're gonna throw first, because those shrimp are following the seawall. You know they following right off. You know 15, 20 foot off that shoreline out to the Gulf, and so you mark it off and you walk up and down there and I'm gonna tell you what's so nice about it is you forget about everything. You may have had the worst week in the world at work with all kind of problems and everything, and man, I'm gonna tell you it's something about.
Speaker 2:You know you're walking up, you have this simple little task that you're doing and you're able to forget everything. And, man, if you're able to have your little cold beer there, or maybe you brought your little mix, something there, you know, and you're walking up and down that seawall, it is just amazing what it does for you. I guess. Just your peace of mind, just your little break from life for a little bit, you're just watching that little area and then when you throw your net, you know you're hoping you throw what they call a silver dollar. You know you're hoping that net opens up perfect, you know.
Speaker 2:And you pull it in. Sometimes you catch a can of bait and that's okay, you pull it in, you throw it back out there, but boy, when you pull it up and you have, and you have 15, 20 shrimp. It doesn't sound like a lot, but you do that, you know, three times, every half an hour, you, in a few hours, not only do you have a lot of shrimp, but you've got a fresh mind. You know, you go home, take you a nice shower and you're just refreshed. And I, you know what my son plays, and friends of mine, I don't play golf, I did, but I don't know, I just don't have time or what have you for it. But they tell me the same thing man, you get out there and you're playing golf and you're hitting it and you just forget about everything. So I guess it's all kind of things we can do, you know, to just kind of set the week aside and just have a little peace of mind for ourselves.
Speaker 2:We'll throw in a cast net as one of them, and throwing it down here in South Mississippi, south Louisiana, even South Alabama. You know, it's just beautiful. It really is. So I'm always bugging y'all could have come on down, come down here and check us out. I'm telling you it's a wonderful, wonderful place. You know, not a lot of, it's just not the big giant tourist area. It's peaceful, it's beautiful, the weather's great, it's safe, you know. So, anyway, y'all come down, come visitors down here in South Mississippi, extreme South, like we can throw a rock and almost hit the gulf. That's how close we are. So anyway, look, it's been another fantastic evening.
Speaker 2:Thank you for waiting. You know this is Monday, but it's okay. Now, what time did I tell you it was earlier, and now it's 620, 621, it just turned. Now, when I leave here, I'm gonna do a few things to put this on the air and guess what? We're gonna get on our bikes and we're gonna go ride to one of the little restaurants. I don't think I might even even eat. I might just go there and have a nice cold beer and then ride the calories off on the way home. So until next time, thank you once again for joining us on the Gulf Coast Food Show. It's a joy being with you and we look forward to seeing you next time.
