Cycle 5 – Item 221

14 (Thu) August 2014

Shrimp Po’boy

1.0

from The Shrimp Shack

(Robinsons Place)

in my apartment

-Ermita, Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines-

solo

Try Every Restaurant in Robinsons Place (72) (see also TERRP)

Living above Robinsons Place, I’ve been eating my way through the mall.  As far as I know, nobody has ever done anything like this, my unique contribution to the city’s food/blog scene.

The Shrimp Shack is an American restaurant chain.  Supposedly inspired by small seafood stalls located along the beach in Hawaii – the first item on the menu is SPAM musubi.  Specializes in shrimp dishes, along with a few American-ish meat dishes.

Po’boy is an American dish.  It’s a sandwich on a baguette-style roll.  Within, the components may vary, usually some kind of sliced meat (e.g., roast beef) or deep-fried seafood (e.g., shrimp), other toppings (e.g., lettuce, tomato) and condiments (e.g., mustard) kept simple.  Often attributed to New Orleans, or somewhere generally in Louisiana, with French/Creole/Cajun influences.  While origin stories range, the term is a derivative of “poor boy,” believed perhaps to have been invented during the Great Depression as a cheap meal for day laborers.

The Shrimp Shack shrimp po’boy was a travesty.  First, the bread was an awful fluffy tasteless ciabatta wannabe.  The 5 teeny pieces of deep-fried shrimp were edible per se but didn’t really make for a satisfying sandwich, made me feel like a poor boy.   The tomato and lettuce, whatever.  Some kind of sweetish mayo/mustard dressing.  The fries were so greasy/soggy in appearance that I didn’t even bother.  Blech.  Rule 2.0.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN PHILIPPINES)