Over the River...

... and through the Wank, to The Shrimp Lot we go.

No, seriously. It's called simply "The Shrimp Lot," and it even has a website. I feel as if I am possibly disclosing some well kept secret among the city's restaurateurs. I had never even heard of this place before two weeks ago when The Folk Singer and I rode out there with our friend, The Wedding Planner. We crossed the CCC and just kept on driving. And driving. And driving. Until we reached Louisiana Street, pulled into the gravel parking lot, and entered a world I had yet to encounter before.

The setup is similar to what I imagine a Turkish to bazaar looks like. There must be 7 or 8 stalls lined up one after the other along each side of the parking lot. How do you choose which one to buy from? I have no idea. I honestly cannot even remember which purveyor we ended up buying from. What I do know is this:

1. Most of the prices are negotiable if you buy in bulk. We purchased 25lbs of U-10 shrimp, and the per pound price was cut from $4.15 to $3.85 per pound.
2. This is hands down, no question, the cheapest price for fresh seafood that you will find anywhere in the area.
3. The vendors sell anything and everything that comes out of the water.

They have crabs: boiling, gumbo, and picked crabmeat.

They have fish: speckled trout, mackerel, drum, and a quite a few other species.
'
They have oysters. They have frog legs. They have turtle meat. They even had crawfish.

But by far the most bountiful catch was shrimp. Not surprising, right? You dance with the one that brought you. There were every size imaginable, ranging from $2.00 per pound for the smallest to $5.00 for the largest. The Shrimp Lot even has a list of recipes for you to try. They got shrimp fettuccini, shrimp scampi, shrimp ono nui, mexican shrimp, deviled shrimp.
'

Or, for us purists out there, fried shrimp.