"With bland vegetables like eggplants and squashes from our gardens, the dried shrimp were perfect for bringing that explosive flavour that we just couldn"t get out of putting crab meat or regular shrimp into it," Folse added. "Smoked sausages like smoked andouille were really, really expensive, and dried shrimp were available to us all the time. So, when I think of it, I think, "My god, what in the heck would we have done without it?""