No ordinary prawn 🦐
Enjoying a sincerely sought after crustacean
The amazing thing about Puglia is that it is essentially a choose-your-own adventure of an Italian vacation. Located in the heel of the boot, Puglia gives you a dizzying array of options. Depending on which way you drive, you can be at a Caribbean style beach, a historic town, or out in agriculture enjoying a vineyard or masseria. Even more amazing, in 7 days, we did all of the above, including enjoying the stellar wines of L’Archetipo , swimming in Porto di Castro Marina and getting lost on tiny streets all around Ostuni, Monopoli, and Lecce.
It was in Lecce that I first laid eyes on the red prawn of the Mediterranean. We had raw red prawn as part of a memorable seafood laden meal at Ristorante Blu Notte. We had built up quite an appetite stalking Alison Roman and were more than ready for our treat. I’m 110% kidding, but according to instagram we missed her in Lecce by a matter of hours! This was much to the chagrin of Tiffany (my fiancé) who’s got a bit of a girl crush going on. It’s worth pointing out that Lecce is absolutely fantastic, threading the needle between small town charm and big city energy.
After a charming & restorative apertivo with 1 Euro snacks and Campari Spritzes, we made our way to Blu Notte. At Blu Notte, we had a range of delicacies, including squid ink spaghetti and lobster with paccheri, but it was the red prawn that floored us.
The unique beauty of the red prawn was its simplicity. It was only lightly dressed (if at all), and had a delicate sweetness to it. There was a softness to the prawn that you’d never get find your standard shrimp cocktail. Even a perfectly cooked shrimp cocktail seems frozen by comparison. Beyond the fact that I was eating raw prawn for the first time, the depth of flavor went far beyond anything I had before.
Why is this prawn’s flavor so special? According to Chef Bartolomeo Marmoreo “The extreme depth of its habitat enriches the prawn with mineral salts, giving it a unique flavour, slightly sweet and smoked. This is why the red prawn, at its best when eaten raw, is one of the most prized food items in Mediterranean cooking and why it is exported the world over.” (Guardian 2019)
Could this be a prawn worth fighting for?
Turns out that was exactly the case. As Italian fishermen seek out the red prawn in the waters of the Mediterranean, they’ve come under machine gun fire from the Libyan Coast Guard who protect their waters closely. Italian fishermen have even been imprisoned for crossing into Libyan waters in their efforts. Further complicating things is the fact that the Libyan Coast Guard received direct funding from the Italian government in their efforts to curb migration. The 180 miles of sea that separates Italy from Libya hold the prized fishing grounds for this delicacy.
While we were just friendly bystanders in this shrimp scuffle, it is an important reminder that all food is essentially political and actions (more than) often have intended consequences. In their efforts to curb migration, Italy has inadvertently made it harder for fishermen to secure this priced crustacean.
Whenever you get to taste a local delicacy, its about finding that balance of first and foremost having the gratitude of getting to taste the true sense of a place, while still being mindful of what it might have taken to get this dish to your plate.
Coming Up:
As we are now officially on the road. Stay tuned for incoming posts on Portugal, Paris, and Hanoi.