From trash to treat: How one family turned rock shrimp into a famous Florida dish - what corn dish is served at mexican restaurant

Titsville, Florida—
After dragging in the Atlantic for several days, Rodney Thompson returned to his home in Florida and dropped a bucket of rock shrimp in the middle of the kitchen.
He booked four schools.
Older children stop playing and come up with a cooking method.
Rock shrimp is considered rubbish.
Their hard, spiny shells separate the thumb and peel off forever.
Thompson's challenge to his children lasted for months until his eldest daughter, a teenage Laurie, had the idea of separating them and putting the texture of the sand
Delicious.
That was 50 years ago.
The Thompson family's findings have led to the popularity of food served today on the Atlantic coast of Florida --
The most famous is the restaurant opened in titsville Thompson.
"We call him the father of the rock shrimp industry," said Bob Jones, executive director of the Southeast Fisheries Association.
"He's the only one to see the chance to get the meat out and get you to eat because they're too hard.
It all started with Thompson building a 22-year-old unrealistic dream.
Shrimp Boat with rice glass fiber.
Back in the 1960 s, shrimp fishing boats were still made of wood, and many fishermen resisted fiberglass.
Thompson was a silent man with an innovative mind, and he was a man who built boats in Titusville through trade, and by that time, it has changed from a citrus and fishing town to a bedroom community for NASA staff working at the nearby Kennedy Space Center to land on the moon.
His staff worked on the ship for a year.
But it was built according to specifications and there was no buyer.
So Thompson turned to catch shrimp to show off the ship's power and began fishing for a bucket of unedible rock shrimp.
He asked his four children Laurie, Sheri, Tom and Tim to help him find a way to cook them.
"When I finally figured it out: one day we were sitting there in pain, hoping we were playing in the pool, riding a horse, not looking at a bunch of stupid rock shrimps on the table, "Laurie Thompson, 65, said.
Lori suddenly grabbed a steak knife and started cutting half of it.
Open a dozen rock shrimps along the bottom edge.
Her mother, Mary Joan, melted the butter, poured it on it and stuck the shrimp in the broiler.
Then the whole family got together and stared at them cooking for two minutes.
The tail of the rock shrimp is curled up, and the meat is pulled away from the shell like a lobster.
They took it out of the oven and tasted it.
"This is probably the biggest, 'Eureka!
"This is the moment of our lives," said Laurie Thompson . ".
Rodney Thompson brings together nearby children every day after school to form an assembly line in his wife's kitchen.
One child will open the shrimp, the other child will wash the shrimp, the other child will put the shrimp into the box, the box is sent to dozens of bars and grills up and down the Indian River.
The rock shrimp is salty and the bar owners love it because their customers will eat them and buy more beer.
Demand quickly outpaced the capacity of the home kitchen, so Thompson rented space in Port Canaveral and started hiring more staffups.
He also used sewing machine motors and vacuum cleaner belts to create mechanized itters that could crack the hard shell of rock shrimp.
Thompson's children returned to their game.
Rock shrimp spans the Atlantic coast of southern United States. S.
The country enters the Gulf of Mexico as far as the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
Their Spanish name is Camarón de Pedra.
Before the efforts of the Thompson family in the late 1960 s, the annual long-distance transportation was considered a by-product
Mainly in Florida waters.
At a rate of 1980 tons per year, it has grown to thousands of tons.
Meanwhile, Thompson continued to build ships on Highway 1970.
But he overexpanded and was forced to sell his business when interest rates soared in early 1980 and the recession.
Thompson lost all three of his boats, two restaurants and shrimp.
Processing plant.
It wasn't long before Rodney and Mary Jean Thompson had a meal in a small restaurant.
Their restaurant is in trouble at the junction of Dixie.
Customers have been wanting rock shrimp for three years, but Thompson is unable to serve them because there is no boat and no loan.
One day, Sam Werner, a friend and fisherman, invited Thompson to his Port office and showed him a padlock refrigerator.
He told Thompson that the rock shrimp inside was his and the fridge was always full.
He knew that Thompson could not pay him back, but he would keep following up and he could pay him back when Thompson stood up.
"They are very good friends and my dad is very confident that Rodney does what he does and finds the market for that shrimp," said Vona's daughter Cissy Shipley . ".
Thompson installed shrimp minute itters in the kitchen at the junction of Dixie and started selling rock shrimp from the menu.
The team entering the restaurant began to meander around the building with two lineshour waits.
In the past few decades, he has built new restaurants for the restaurant, which now has 465 people.
NASA officials brought the families of astronauts there before the shuttle was launched.
In recent years, the restaurant and a family-run independent seafood retailer have sold about $6 million a year.
Thompson died for a year. and-a-half ago.
His daughters Laurie and Sherri run these businesses today.
While Werner died in 2012, the Thomson family will never forget one of the best companies he helped in Florida --
Famous Restaurant.
"Look where it is now," said Laurie Thompson . ".
"We sell a lot of rock shrimp.