Battered shrimp

[jetadore]

I don’t eat shrimp but on a couple of occasions I’ve eaten out (different) people who have ordered shrimp tempura and they’ve been served whole shrimp with shell on that’s been battered and fried. This was in decent restaurants, one Japanese, the other a speciality seafood place, so not done by mistake.
They’ve then proceeded to eat them by removing all the batter, shell, head, and just eating the meat from the tail.
This has come up in conversation, separately with different people, and I’ve said it seems incredibly wasteful and perhaps the whole thing must be edible after deep frying otherwise why would they serve them like that, but others have said that you can’t possibly eat the shell as it’ll potentially damage your stomach/anus (sorry!). Which is it?

IABU - Ew, no way you’d be cut to ribbons
IANBU - Yum, I eat the whole thing, crunchy crunchy

Eaten out with people! ffs

You can eat the shell

Oh god my dad eats the shell on prawns, awful

The only battered prawns I’ve had are out the freezer section in a supermarket and they had no shells on!

Hmm technically you can eat the shell I think but I wouldn’t
your rationale of the whole thing being edible due to being deep fried isn’t (imo) correct.
for example, you used to be able to buy chicken Kiev with a bone in and that was deep fried. Or what about kfc wings- same principle

I just keep thinking about a deep fried egg, she’ll and all and eating it. 🤢

I can accept I might be wrong but I’m not buying your counter argument as shrimp don’t have bones, and their exoskeleton/shell is made from completely different material to bone.

Battered shrimp is an American thing as they call prawns shrimp. Are you in US OP?
We (UK) couldn't batter shrimps as they are so small (hence shrimp meaning tiny).
I have seen unshelled prawns served with butter or sauce which is always ridiculously messy but battered deep fried prawns is a new one on me, and I agree OP, it would be a waste of effort and batter.

I’m in UK but not a big seafood eater. I thought shrimp were the bigger ones and prawns were the wee ones? Anyway the ones I mean were pretty big, a good 3inches long, so prawns 🦐 I guess.

@ODFOx I'm assuming you've not been to Scotland? All my local chippies have battered prawns on the menu.

The local chip bus have tempura prawns as a special regularly (although they use king prawns). Personally don't appeal to me as I'm not a fan of seafood but they are done in a lot of places round here

Have only ever seen this as a king prawn, peeled but with the tail on, battered and fried.

Amen, not to mention the fact that they’re basically aquatic cockroaches.

What do you mean by ‘peeled’? Head part on or off? The ones I saw definitely had eyes.

In Japan they often serve prawns in the shell, and eating the shell is the norm.

The whole thing is edible. You can even eat the tail if you like. But some people prefer not to.

I've only ever had tempura prawns with shell OFF.
They sometimes leave the tail but the body will always be peeled.
Otherwise it would be crunchy and weird.

You hold it by the unbattered tail and eat the rest batter and all.

Depends on the type of prawn or shrimp. Most battered prawns or tempura prawns I've had are shell off because they use a thick shelled prawn. it's quite tough through and takes effort to get it off. A langoustine tail has a pretty substantial shell. The prawns from warmer waters are thinner ime. The wee North Atlantic prawns you get in prawn Marie rose are usually shell off too.

The shell is usually off the body and they sometimes leave the tail sticking out but I don’t eat that bit

I've never been served it shell on when battered, only the tail, and I order them a lot. You hold the tail and eat the rest

I've never seen a shell on prawn, soft shell crab, yes 🤮 but not prawns

I've eaten an unpeeled battered prawn before in Italy (I had been peeling them all, thereby negating the point of the batter, until one of the friends I was with rather snootily told me you're supposed to eat it with the shell on, so I tried one).

Yes, they are technically edible like that, but it just isn't a very pleasant experience. Instead of savouring the lovely juicy prawn flesh, you have to concentrate on chewing up this tough, flavourless shell, that gets in the way of the actual prawn flesh so you can't taste it as much. And no, the deep-frying doesn't soften up the shell to any real extent. I just really don't see the point of it. It actually annoyed me that anyone ever thought it was a good idea.

You're supposed to eat the whole thing...

I was at a fair at the weekend where they served whole BBQed prawns in a roll. It was bad enough trying to eat a burger (v few seats) how would someone be able to juggle everything whilst dishelling the prawns???