After visiting Historic Charleston and Jekyll Island, my wife and I spent a few days at the beach in Florida. You’d think the seafood would be a lot cheaper, being on the coast and all, but it’s not that different from my local grocery store. Then again, I live in a coastal state. We bought some amberjack steaks for our ‘nice dinner’ night. For another night, we bought some shrimp:

When you factor in time, money and level of difficulty, is there any meal better than a shrimp boil?

You just throw everything into a pot of seasoned, boiling water and that’s it for the prep work and cooking. Then you strain it, dump it on some newspaper, and dig in. There are no dirty dishes and the whole mess goes straight into a garbage bag when you’re done.

In our travels, we’ve noticed that people in the north tend to use Old Bay in their boils while people in the south use Tony Chachere’s. We used both in this boil. Old Bay has a smoky flavor and Chachere’s is a little salty, so they both bring something to the party when mixed.