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Great post! Soon dooboo is the perfect bubbling bowl of spicy umami goodness! I want to buy a Korean clay pot, but do I need to season it like a wok or cast iron skillet? and is there any proper way to clean it? oh and one more thing, what's your favorite stock to use for soon dooboo because i made it one time with anchovy broth and it was too bland.

@b0tn0t - I agree, the tubes are much better. I always use the Korean soondooboo tubes.

NWcajun, you're extremely welcome. I am jealous of your being in Oregon. Forget ribeye! You could put geoduck and dungeness into your soondubu! I have always wanted to catch dungeness and dig for my own geoduck.

I love soondubu but mu husband doesn't so I will definitely be making this at home for lunch when he's not here. I can see this being a last minute life-saver many times this winter.

I have an old clay pot/bowl in my basement from a noodle phase I went through and I am going home to have this for lunch. It's cold here in Oregon and this looks perfect!!! Thank you

Jennalynn: That's right - add the soondubu paste.

harmonica: Do you have a heat diffuser? It's a plate you can use to temper the heat of the electric stove. Mine looks something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I1WO8C/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0000X6ESO&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0PQNMQZ36TV1FWJYPK5Y

I have a gas stove, but clay pot experts recommend using a heat diffuser on top of an electric stove when cooking with clay pots.

A little fun fact: Sushi grade fish is always previously frozen to kill any potential harmful parasites. There really is no such thing as fresh seafood when you buy it in stores. And many of us have never tasted fresh shrimp since we don't catch and cook it ourselves on the same day.

karacooks - is right on! If you want freshest possible shrimp it's got to be frozen JUST THAW IT RIGHT! Upon harvesting shrimp and it hits the deck it sterts to deteriorate, as in rot, so it has to be iced or frozen stat! The question should have been saltwater shrimp versus fresh water and the origin. I feel the Mexican Guaymas Whites are the best available and they are frozen. The Guaymas whites are the sweetest and claenest tasting of all. In the mid '79's the Japanese signed a 30 year contract with the Mexican Government Co-operativo to purchase the entire catch of these shrimp so they weren't available anywhere but from Japan. A few years ago the contract expired and the Mexican Gov't saw the error by locking in a price and wouldn't renew the contract so now they are available here in the U.S. Try the Catalina Seafood Company in San Diego put in a little effort and get the best.

I'll only use frozen shrimp or scallops for that matter if added to a stew... otherwise you need the fresh stuff to grill/sear.... oh yea - I have made the mistake.

I have never seen fresh shrimp in our area so I have to buy frozen. I like knowing i have them in the freezer ready to go for a quick meal. I am 5 minutes away from making shrimp cocktail, shrimp scampi, or chinese shrimp stir-fry. If I had access to fresh shrimp, I would love it. But I don't. I am sure the flavor is probably better but there is nothing I can do about this except move somewhere south - such as FL, LA or GA.

Personally, I have no problem with frozen shrimp. However, my question has to do with what is being sold as "fresh". I live in Miami, FL. I recently went to Homestead, FL to a "farmer's market". While there I realized much of the product sold was from California, not locally grown produce. So I wonder if the non-local mentality has carried over to other categories.

To my question. There is a fish monger selling head on green shrimp at the same farmer's market. However it says it comes from the Gulf. Is it possible to buy Gulf shrimp that has never been frozen on the Atlantic side of the state? I guess I should ask the question this way...Does anyone have experience buying head on green shrimp that you know for certain has not been frozen?
Maybe the better question is...how can I tell if head on green shrimp has been recently caught? these shrimp are displayed as Alton Brown recommends with piles of ice in a free draining container.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

@dbisping, you are looking for Cook's Illustrated Online. This isn't that.

I grew up cleaning fresh shrimp on the Atlantic Coast, and as a result I hated shrimp. The someone told me about cooked, frozen shrimp. I thaw them in cold running water and I never by any chance cook them or add them directly to hot preparations--but, for numerous salads, cocktails, sushi and garnish preps, they are awesome.

I agree that they taste flavored. Much better than I could.

@dbisping: Our intent, in this post, was to draw attention to a writeup elsewhere on the Internet and ask for the opinions of our Serious Eats community on the topic—that is, whether frozen shrimp have their merits.

At Serious Eats, we aim to foster discussion about a wide variety of topics, some of which we on staff or as writers spend time exploring ourselves, some of which, like this, are simply intended as conversation starters. We believe that there's a great deal of collective knowledge in our online community and want to tap into it whenever possible. Posts like this allow us to do so.