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Big shrimp for dinner! Food’s greatest oxymoron taken to its most moronic level

KK Miller Nov 13, 2014
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big shrimp 3

Japan loves to wow you with cute and tiny food. Sometimes the food is so tiny you need a magnifying glass to truly appreciate its beauty. Other times the food is so cute you can barely stand to eat it. However, you don’t often hear about the opposite end of the spectrum in Japan. The “Land of the Rising Sun” isn’t known for its gigantic foods and proportions. (You can leave that to the United States.)

But perhaps some restaurants are trying to separate themselves from the pack by adopting some more “Western” ideas. A restaurant in Nagoya is selling a dish of three humongous shrimp, and it’s definitely a sight to be seen! If you’ve never seen the largest shrimp in the world before, they make jumbo shrimp look, well…shrimpy!

The dish is called ebi-furai, which translates to shrimp fry, but that doesn’t really describe the dish very well. It’s usually a battered and lightly fried black tiger shrimp, but it’s different from tempura shrimp. For this dish, you coat the shrimp using panko (Japanese) bread crumbs and deep fry until its golden brown and delicious.

If you find yourself in Nagoya Station, you can head over to Ebidote Shokudo which claims to sell the biggest ebi-fry in the world.

Image: Tabelog (神無月サスケ)

If you are going to make huge ebi-fry, might as well use the biggest shrimp that you can! The Japanese foodies are abuzz with the chance to eat such an enormous prawn. The reactions are definitely on the positive side.

名古屋駅の地下で見つけたんだがこんなエビフライ誰が食べられるんだよ(^_^;) pic.twitter.com/kyFdJIyFME

— コメたん (@kutolugua747) October 22, 2014

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A post shared by Cotaro (@cotaro70s)

Ebidote Shokudo serves either just a single ebi-fry or a three-piece shrimp tower. For those springing for the “Huge Ebi-Fry Tower” be careful, those guys will only stay erect for one minute.

https://twitter.com/tamago_maki/status/524862232845230080

The average size of these monsters is about 35 cm (13.77 inches). How do you know? The paper the chopsticks come in serve as a handy ruler. The shrimp are even longer than the chopsticks you would use to eat them!

夢みたい♡35㌢のエビフライ(∩*´꒳`*∩) pic.twitter.com/QLEWPy6w0s

— ゆちし (@yuchishi) November 2, 2014

エビフライ定食きましたぁ～！！…エビフライ35cmくらいあるそうです！（箸入れがモノサシになってるそうです！） pic.twitter.com/3sOwHf7DuZ

— 城久間次朗＊🐻＊ (@jirow_469ma) November 9, 2014

Image: Meieki Keizai Shinbun

If you are a fan of ebi-fry or even just shrimp itself, than you owe it to yourself to get down to Nagoya. These comically large shrimp will cost you a pretty yenny though. These shrimp are notoriously hard to find at the market, so if you do happen across them, expect to pay between 1,000-3,000 yen (US $8.66-$26.00). Which is why it’s not surprising that the price of a single huge ebi-fry is 2,360 yen ($21.47), and the tower of shrimp is over 5,500 yen ($47.70).