Check Your Head

I rarely eat shrimp with the heads on, until recently, I went with Metrocurean and some other fun people to Kaz Sushi Bistro and fell in love with seasoned crunchy shrimp heads. That was in early August; I’ve been craving them since.

Now that they’re on my radar, I’ve noticed they’re fairly easy to find, yet few people order them, according to chef Daniel Arana from Taberna del Alabardero, who offers any shrimp dish with heads on.”I’d love to sell whole shrimp. I say, ‘Please eat the head of the shrimp. That’s where the flavor is.’ I have to beg people.”

You can also find whole shrimp for lunch at CommonWealth, where I had a boozy Friday at the bar. I didn’t know there was a lunch menu until after I’d ordered, or I would have had the grilled head-on shrimp with barley, cucumber, preserved lemon and mint. Yum.

So, shrimp heads: hot or not? And where else have you found them?