BC Spot Prawns

BC spot prawns, a sustainable fishing project; even the bags are biodegradable.

So with all this BC spot prawn hype, I headed off to the Fishermen's wharf in Granville Island to buy some fresh spot prawns right off the boat. As I approached the boat "prawns?" the fisherman called out. "Yes" I said as I was called closer. There were like 100 prawns in a hand basket and they were alive, and at this point I am thinking "well not this fresh" : slips out of my mouth these words actually : "do you have dead ones?". Without taking insult, the fisherman says "no, these are the freshest... here... you take them like this and twist their head off like this (whoa! did he just twist the head off a live prawn?), suck the juices off their heads like this... and eat the flesh like this...".

Getting light-headed now, I watch as he does the same with a second one and offers it to me "here, taste the ocean"... But because I do not know how to refuse something someone is giving me, I take it and put it in my mouth... As the prawn melts away in my mouth, reviving distant memories of my grandma's kitchen in the coastal Negombo... I am in heaven... and I order a pound... no, two...

Bringing 100 of these guys home in the bus was another story - they moved about as they got warmer. Then as I set them up to photograph, and show a friend on google video, they were jumping out of the bowl - one even jumped on my keyboard... eeewwww....

Then because you are supposed to cook them while they are still alive, or else if they die and their heads are still attached, apparently an enzyme is released that makes their meat mushy... Actually my mom used to say if you don't cook crab while they are alive, they lose their meat... Anyway, so I took all the prawns and plunged them in hot water for 30 sec... they immediately turned pink and their eyes became grey... awww... poor poor little prawns...

Had them for lunch with a ginger-tequila-butter reduction and then for dinner, prepared Sri Lankan style, with string hoppers that I bought from a Sri Lankan take-out restaurant.

I am still oscillating between 'did I just commit mass murder?' or 'has North America made me a wimp?'

But still, I am in heaven....