Not your basic popcorn shrimp

A few weeks ago while in NC, we went to a seafood restaurant on the recommendation of a local. “You’ve gotta go” he raved. My first clue to the quality of the food should have been the “Cleanliness Certificate” that hung in the lobby. This locale received a score of 90.4 out of 100. That’s an A- which is okay, right? But my mind raced back to the 7-Eleven we had visited a few days earlier. It also had its Cleanliness Certificate hanging up, back by the rotating hotdogs, with a score of 93.7. And, to tell you the truth, it really wasn’t all that spick and span. This 3 point difference made me apprehensive. Strike one.

My apprehension was lessened by a look at the menu. There were several dishes available and I was sure the food was going to be fresh. Plus, the prices were a little higher than our usual restaurant fare, and in the past, higher price has meant higher quality. However, my hopes were squandered once more as the waitress brought out plastic utensils and a breadbasket full of pre-packed sauces. I soon discovered that the food was served on plastic plates. Strike two.

I wanted to give the place a fair chance so I ordered the shrimp. A rarity for me, but something I try when I know it will be fresh. The menu described the shrimp as “steamed and served with a butter and garlic sauce.” Just the way I prefer it. Things were looking up.

My plastic plate came, filled with shrimp and a ketchup cup of butter…sauce. As I dipped my crustacean into the cup, my eyes seemed to fool me. “This looks too thick to be butter”, I thought. I lifted the shrimp to my mouth and took a bite. The taste of the sauce was familiar. Very salty. Very fake buttery. Very much like the stuff they squirt onto popcorn at movie theatres. Very much indeed popcorn butter. Strike three.

So the long and short of it is, I had steamed shrimp with two pumps of popcorn butter on a plastic plate in a place dirtier than the Sev down the street. And it wasn’t cheap. Heck, I think I would have been better off with a rotating hotdog.