SeaPak Jumbo Coconut Shrimp w/Marmalade Sauce (10 oz.)

Item Purchased: SeaPak Jumbo Coconut Shrimp (10 oz.)
Location Purchased: Jewel / 1224 S. Wabash Ave. / Chicago, IL
Price: $6.99 + tax

Review: Why is it that whenever you are hungry at work, someone starts talking about food? There I was, minding my own business, letting this woman peruse the impulse buys scattered around the front counter when she picks up a cookbook with large pictures and simple instructions. No more than thirty seconds after opening the book, the woman starts yelling to her daughter across the store. "Hey look! Here's an easy recipe for coconut shrimp! You should give this to your boyfriend then you can tell him what you want and he will be able to cook it for you!" Then, she started listing all of the ingredients and the instructions on how to make what sounded like mediocre coconut shrimp. At this point though, even mediocre coconut shrimp sounded like gourmet to me. My stomach grumbled in agreement.

So it was, that when I stopped at the grocery store after work, I made a bee-line for the seafood section and picked out the only box of coconut shrimp they had. Boxed frozen seafood tends to be a no no with me, but that cursed woman at the bookstore had bewitched me with her talk of palm fruit and sea creatures.

Sea Pak's box of jumbo coconut shrimp comes with thirteen sizeable shrimp that are larger than most diners' jumbo shrimp but significantly smaller than most seafood restaurants'. My kitchen is not the most advanced because of the loft space I live in, and we only have a mini oven to bake things in. This works fine for pizzas as most of them fit snugly inside on the rack. When you are baking something that needs a pan, however, it becomes tricky. The only thing approximating a baking sheet that I could find to fit in my oven was a cupcake tray. My shrimp were baked in the lap of luxury. Each breaded crustacean had its own tub to relax in as it soaked up the rays of the heating coil.

Twelve minutes later, when the shrimp were done, I heated the marmalade dipping sauce by placing the plastic bag it comes in inside a shallow pot of hot water for a few minutes. Perhaps marmalade dipping sauces usually go well with coconut shrimp, but I would have preferred a normal cocktail sauce. The shrimp was crunchy with a strong coconut taste and a subtle shrimp one. As with most breaded foods, the taste of the batter took over and the excessively large flakes of coconut often got stuck in my teeth. Though the shrimp was a bit too "frozen" for my tastes, this shrimp dinner is not too bad of a buy for seven bucks. I don't think I'll be making Thursday evenings seafood night or anything, but if you ever find that someone makes you crave coconut shrimp, this is an affordable option that will at least assuage the craving until you clean out the couch and can afford that lobster meal on the coast.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Image from Damiao Santana's Flickr Stream.