Dail's - The Freshest Seafood on St. George Island

Dail’s Seafood Trailer has been a staple on St. George Island for more than twenty-five years. Many vacationers on St. George Island have been picking up shrimp and other seafood at Dail’s on the way to their vacation rental regularly for years, and for good reason…it’s the freshest seafood on the island.

Mr. Dail is a 5th generation fisherman. This guy knows the waters of Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf. Dail’s Seafood trailer sources its seafood from local shrimpers and fisherman every day. That’s why the trailer is occasionally missing from its normal spot on East Gulf Beach Dr. If the weather is so bad that the guys on the boats can’t go on the water, then Dail’s has to wait for another day to sell the island’s freshest seafood.

Our last visit to Dail’s was following a VERY long day on the golf course at St. James Bay in Carrabelle (blog review of St. James coming soon). We stopped by the trailer that has become a staple on East Gulf Beach Dr. The special of the day was extra large shrimp, and we picked up a pound of fresh shrimp. The lady in the trailer (Ms. Anna) was very nice and quickly grabbed our shrimp. (Make sure you check out the Dail’s Facebook page to see their daily specials.) The service was great, and we headed back to Sea Dunes where we were staying.

We took our shrimp, found our recipe for shrimp ceviche and got to work. The recipe comes from Fit Men Cook (link to recipe here), and let me tell you it was delicious, especially with that super fresh shrimp from Dail’s! Unlike most ceviche recipes, we actually cooked the shrimp before adding the citrus juices.

INGREDIENTS (serves 5):

1 1/4 lb raw jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

Broth (Tiger’s Milk):

2/3 cup (about 6 limes) fresh lime juice (or more/less to taste)

Juice from 2 navel oranges

2 tablespoons hot sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

pinch of sea salt

Veggies:

1 medium cucumber, peeled and diced

1 green (or colorful) bell pepper, diced

1 jalapeño, seeded and diced

3 Roma tomatoes, diced

1 medium red onion, sliced

4 garlic cloves, finely diced

1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped leaves

STEPS:

Bring a large pot of salt water to a boil. Toss in the raw shrimp and cook for no more than 2 minutes, or until the shrimp is white, pink and plump. Immediately remove the shrimp from the boiling water and plunge the shrimp into a large bowl of ice water to stop it from cooking.
Mix together fresh ingredients for the broth and set aside to let the flavors meld.
Add all of the ceviche ingredients to a large bowl. Chop up the shrimp into smaller pieces, about 1/2-inch (or cut each shrimp into 3 equal parts), then add it to the large bowl.
Fold everything together, then pour in the broth (Tiger’s Milk) and gently fold everything together again.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, then store in the fridge for at least 2 hours; but, you can enjoy it sooner, after about 30 minutes so the flavors can meld together and so the citrus juice can remove the “bite” from the onion.
Season to taste with sea salt & pepper and enjoy!