In Defence of Gluttony: A Photoessay

After seeing some mouthwatering ads on TV (we're such suckers), Dave and I decided it would be a good idea to get a group together for the all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion that's going on at Red Lobster right now. Brett, taker of the photos below and a graphic designer at Dave's place of employ, Rue Morgue, called up the restaurant to make sure that the, as he hilariously put it, "Eternal Shrimp" event was still on. They confirmed that it was, so we gathered the troops (L-R in the photo below: Paul, Alex, Brett, Gary, Nicole, me, Dave, and Jovanka) to eat as much shrimp as possible in one sitting.

The evening started on an optimistic note, with everyone finishing their free salad and biscuits (which are so, so good), as well as their first servings of shrimp no problem. Plenty of jokes were made referencing the Simpsons seafood episode and the obligatory"Deadly Prawn" pun was slam-dunked by Jovanka (who was the only attendee who was not partaking in the shrimp pig-out due to an allergy). Our servers humoured us, providing pitchers of Diet Coke for the table, and bringing out shrimp replacements at timely intervals. It was soon discovered that the only non-breaded shrimp offering, the garlic shrimp, is the dish to order if you want to maximize your shrimp consumption. On the other hand, the shrimp pasta, while delicious, is a complete appetite-killer due to the huge serving of carbs and rich sauce that comes with it.

After 4 or 5 servings, everyone started to slow down and some people dropped out of the "race" completely (me included). Three of the lead contenders: Paul, Brett, and Gary fell out after 86 prawns were consumed each. To be fair, Paul's shrimp intake included two servings of the aforementioned pasta.

Dave, however, would not stop until he broke three digits. The photo below is shrimp #101. He eventually made it to 105, and then exploded.

As a table, we ate about 540 shrimp between 7 people. It was amazing. The carnage can be seen below.

Gary feels remorse:

Brett slips into a shrimp-induced coma:

Paul struggles to keep his two servings of shrimp pasta down:

While all-you-can-eat deals probably shouldn't be challenged on a regular basis, we had a blast on this particular outing. At $23 bucks a pop, it was definitely worth the price. Thanks, Red Lobster!