S T A R T E R S
SO, IS IT A PRAWN? OR IS IT A SHRIMP? IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ARE, AND WHERE YOU LIVE, IT SEEMS. WHAT DOESN’T CHANGE, HOWEVER, IS HOW DELICIOUS THEY ARE…
Prawns WHAT WE CALL these teeny, ten-legged, antennae-waving, curly-tailed aquatic crustaceans is rather random: Americans prefer shrimp, Brits prawn, and though there’s a vague international agreement that ‘prawn’ perhaps sounds a little bit larger than ‘shrimp’ does, it’s all so random. Apart from with very specific species, the two words are virtually interchangeable.
What they all have going for them, though, is sweet, meaty flesh, and huge versatility: just about every world cuisine, and every type of savoury dish, has a place for the prawn somewhere near its heart. Back in the day these things were a luxury, but no more. Determined fishing and farming has made them readily available and even cheap, to the point where sustainability
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has become an issue: this is especially true of large, tropical warm-water varieties, like farmed king prawns and tiger prawns, and happily not so much with smaller versions from Arctic and near-Arctic waters. You can buy prawns raw or cooked, and in or out of their shells; generally (though not universally), small, regular cold-water varieties tend to be peeled, cooked and
crumbsmag.com