Brussels Sprouts with Shrimp Sauce

One of my earliest memories of America is waking up from a winter afternoon nap to a horrible smell—a stench, if you will. Groggy and slightly hungry, I stumbled to the kitchen to find my mother putting together dinner. “I’m using this new vegetable I found,” she said, revealing a slimy green and brown concoction. The classic dried shrimp sauce looked familiar, but the vegetables in question were unlike anything I’d seen before. They were small, bitter-smelling, soggy half circles with laye