Making a Splash

For the Love of Shrimpburgers

 Nostalgic cinderblock seafood joints serve more than tasty seafood. They have an allure that keeps us coming back again and again. If you’re searching for a good South Carolina shrimpburger, follow the shellfish trail up the coast along coastal Hwy. 17. Roll the windows down, feel the salty breezes, and inhale deeply. When you smell that sulfurous, stinky aroma of pluff mud, it's a sure sign that fried shrimp and oysters cannot be far away, and maybe a shrimpburger.  

You might be thinking they’re all the same - shrimp and crab burgers - as common on any coastal South Carolina menu as a cheeseburger, sweet tea, or an ice-cold coke.  Nothing special, you might think, a plain bun softened by the heat of a steamer, a little lettuce, and tomato. That’s it. Some are seared in a skillet, smashed on a grill, sometimes single or stacked, cheesed or bare but nonetheless irresistible but little known beyond our coast shrimpburgers.

I don’t know how often I have consumed an entire shrimpburger while walking down the beach with the burger in one hand and sweet tea in the other. It’s summer in a sandwich. But when you try to find one, you may have to wait in line at a restaurant with a few young ‘uns with more piercings than Daggoo, the harpooner from Moby Dick, but it will all be worth the wait.

If you’ve never met a shrimpburger, well, bless your heart. It’s a burger that occurs when a heap of perfectly fried, tender shrimp meets a lighter-than-air steamed white bun, a big dollop of tartar sauce, a mound of coleslaw just like your mama makes and a tiny squiggle of ketchup.

If you’re on St. Helena Island, perhaps headed toward the beach, you’ll pass right by Hilda Upton’s Shrimp Shack on the left-hand side of U.S. 21 just before you get to Harbor Island.  If you’ve never eaten a shrimp burger, why wait any longer?  Even Pat Conroy called it one of the joys of his life. However, as much as he tried, he could never wheedle that recipe out of Hilda, even though his friendship with her went back to their days at Beaufort High School.

The Shrimp Shack even gets national attention from time to time.  The New York Times once described it as “a roadside take-out window on stilts, with just a bench and a couple of tables.  It’s like dining in a treehouse.”

It’s easy to make your own. Serve these burgers with steak fries, broccoli slaw, classic creamy coleslaw, or some Southern-style hushpuppies.

Here’s the way I like to fix ‘em and serve with mama’s creamy coleslaw.