BC Spot Prawns—in season for just about eight weeks – Tim Pawsey photo
This is the time of year (May through June) when the whole of Vancouver (and just about everywhere else on the BC coast) goes crazy for Spot Prawns. That should come as no surprise. Get ‘em fresh off the boat (daily at the False Creek Public Fish Sales Dock—just past 1st. Ave. and Fir St.); cook ‘em as little as possible (if at all …).
And serve.
(With apologies to our east coast friends), you may just wonder why you’d ever bother with lobster again.
Fisherman Steve Johansen scoops up another pound, Tim Pawsey photo
Steve Johansen (the fisherman behind Organic Ocean) can be widely credited with boosting the fortunes of this superb crustacean, along with the indefatigable BC Chef’s Table Society, that celebrates the season’s opening early in May with an outdoor cook-up courtesy of several of the city’s top toques.
Plus, if you join the society you’ll qualify for a small discount on every pound you buy. Now that’s worth the price of admission alone!
No question: Spot Prawns are the obvious sustainable alternative to farmed Tiger prawns.
We arrived in Vancouver on our first trip on May 15 and read The Hired Belly’s article in the Vancouver Courier: “Spot prawn season short but sweet” from the day before. Tim Pawsey whose e-mail address was in the article) was prompt in his response to my e-mail requesting directions to the dock where we would find spot prawns. The following Wednesday, before we moved into our apartment, we cruised around False Creek on our bikes to Go Fish. By the time we got there at 1 p.m., they were out of their preparation of spot prawns. We read on the board at the nearby False Creek Public Fish Sales Dock that the spot prawn boat was due in at that time. When the boat arrived we queued and asked if we could eat the spot prawns raw. The guys said yes, sold us 4, and we feasted on a park bench near the dock on our “sashimi style” spot prawns. Really excellent and such a great experience to find them! Thank you Tim.
Audre and Dimitri
P.S. Once in our apartment we shopped at the Real Canadian and bought 2 small east coast lobsters for $6.99 each and ate them with gusto. It appears we are in shellfish heaven.
P.P.S. Have a look at our blog about our traveling lifestyle:
http://travelingloveaffair.blogspot.com