I’m freakin’ hyper-excited about going out on the boat tomorrow and trapping spot prawns from 6am on. I’ll be joining Rob Clark from “C” Restaurant and Steve Johansen & Crew from Organic Ocean, and seven hours later we’ll moor at False Creek Fisherman’s Wharf next to Granville Island Market with thousands of our sweet and juicy, hopefully not so little buddies. Steve and company will haul ’em up for sale and for Vancouver’s top chefs to prep and pass around to the gathered keeners. It’s gonna be a fine day. Sunny and 18 degrees.

In the unlikely event that you’ve never heard of spot prawns, I wrote them up last year in Vancouver magazine when they were given the nod for Ingredient of the Year:

Over 900,000 tonnes of Tiger prawns are harvested annually, roughly two-thirds coming from warm-water farms that dot the deltas of Southeast Asia. It’s a relatively new and very profitable industry in producer nations like Vietnam, and it has badly wounded the communities that support it. Along with environmental damage have come disease, debt, and dispossession. Despite these sad facts (not to mention that the prawns often feast on antibiotics and growth hormones), the prawns remain an attractive commodity on the global market. Predictable by virtue of their blandness and cheap availability year-round, farmed Tigers will always be an easy sell. Mushy in texture and almost devoid of flavour, they remain manufactured ghosts, shadows of the real thing. (Indeed, if this were a piece on the worst ingredient of the year, farmed prawns would most certainly crack the shortlist.)

The strongest argument against them is that we have always had a superior alternative sourced by fishermen right here at home. Sweet and delicately flavoured, firm on the incisors and succulent on the molars, the B.C. spot prawn—largest of all our local prawns—is one of the finest and best-tasting crustaceans that our oceans surrender. And the fishermen use baited traps on buoy lines, keeping habitat damage and by-catch to a minimum. Supply of the spot prawn has long been ample, but local demand had been minimal. The short season, six- to eight-weeks beginning in May, made it a delicacy overseas and doomed the domestic market. Ninety percent of the catch was whisked to Asia, the remainder going to the few restaurants and markets around B.C. willing to pay a premium price. Enter the Chef’s Table Society. Last May, the local collective of conscientious food lovers, chefs, and restaurateurs helped to develop and promote Vancouver’s first day-boat spot-prawn fishery. To raise public awareness they hosted the 1st Annual Spot Prawn Festival at False Creek’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The event introduced Vancouver chefs and home cooks to the best local ingredient they’d never heard of, and ensured the spot prawn a place on our more forward-thinking menus for years to come.

I hope to see some Scout readers down there. Please say hi!

The Official Press Release

Chefs’ Table Society kicks-off the Third Annual Spot Prawn Festival with Vancouver’s Top Chefs

WHEN: Saturday May 9th from 12pm – 3pm

PHOTO OPP: AT 1:00pm, Steve Johansen from Organic Ocean will arrive with the season’s fist catch!

WHERE: False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf ?1505 West 1st Avenue, North-West of Granville Island, between the Burrard Street Bridge and the Granville Street Bridge.

WHAT: A community and family-friendly event at False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf. Rain or shine this launch will feature Vancouver’s top chefs preparing delicious spot prawn dishes, a gathering of Vancouver’s chef and restaurant community, and the arrival of the season’s first spot prawns as local fishermen return to the wharf with their catch.

WHO: Food lovers will enjoy incredible spot prawn dishes from 10 of Vancouver’s Top Chefs. We also have an author’s cookbook corner with Barbara-Jo McIntosh from Books to Cooks; coffee from Ethical Bean; a children’s play area from Ocean Wise, and wine samples from Ganton & Larsen Prospect Winery.

WHY:At $12 per pound for the public ($10 for Chefs’ Table members), spot prawns are an excellent and affordable alternative to the farmed tiger prawns served in most Vancouver restaurants. Saturday, ay 9th will mark the first official day of the local spot prawn season.

Local. Sustainable. Delicious. Join us for the kick-off of the 3rd Annual Local Spot Prawn Festival!

For further event information please visit: www.chefstablesociety.com.

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