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)