Ah, Christmas at Sydney Fish Market... The hustle and bustle of Sydneysiders shopping for their seafood spreads, families tucking into fish and chips at 6am, and tonne after tonne of prawns being poured into iced displays.
While some prawn connoisseurs will know just what they're looking for on Christmas Eve, for others the enormous range of options can be overwhelming.
To help you out, we picked the brains of our Tour Guide and resident seafood expert Alex Stollznow about the most common prawn varieties, and gathered some tips on how to choose the perfect prawn in your price range.
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SCHOOL PRAWNS
Not much bigger than a pinky finger, School Prawns are wild-caught, mostly in estuaries south of Noosa. While they are available year-round, their peak is between October and April – perfect for Christmas!
You can expect them to retail for between $14-$20/kg, making them the cheapest variety of prawn any day of the week.
School Prawns are deliciously sweet; an important rule of thumb to remember is the smaller the prawn, the sweeter the taste.
While you can buy them cooked and peel them and eat them at the table, this can be fiddly. Our recommendation is to buy them green and deep-fry them whole. Toss them in chilli salt and serve with a cold beer for something as delicious and addictive as potato chips!
KING PRAWNS
Wild-caught all over Australia, King Prawns come in between 10 and 21cm in length, meaning you have a lot of size options to choose from. Medium is our pick for the best balance of value, satisfaction factor, and flavour.
Green King Prawns will often be frozen in advance of Christmas to account for demand, then gently thawed to perfection right before sale. If you're buying green, you've got about 48-72 hours to enjoy them. Cooked King Prawns are boiled on board the ships they are caught, and thus have a slightly longer shelf life, at 3-5 days.
Wild prawns like the King have a subtle, buttery, delicate flavour, making them perfect for lighter dishes like pastas.
Another thing to consider if you're choosing wild-caught prawns is that flavour can vary significantly between prawns, depending on a range of factors such as water salinity and feeding opportunities.
TIGER PRAWNS
There are a number of varieties of Tiger Prawns, some wild-caught, some farmed.
Black Tiger Prawns are the most common aquaculture prawn in Australia, and will make up most of what you see on display at Sydney Fish Market at Christmastime. These tend to have a stronger and more consistent flavour than wild-caught prawns, making them perfect for punchier dishes like salads, rice paper rolls, or being served with a zingy dipping sauce.
Wild Tiger Prawns are often very large, sometimes up to 35cm long, and are identifiable by their stunning stripey appearance (with stripes continuing all the way down to the feelers). Much of their high price (often over $50/kg) is thanks to these gorgeous aesthetics.
Their large size can mean that they have a less concentrated flavour compared to their smaller counterparts; but if you are planning a visually impressive dish that requires big prawns, they're a great choice.
BONUS QUALITY TIPS
Overall, when shopping for prawns you're looking for brightly coloured, firm, intact, lustrous shells.
Avoid prawns with significant discolouration around the head or joints, and if you can get a sniff, make sure they smell fresh and oceanic. Your nose will tell you instantly if they're no good.
It's also helpful to examine the prawns' feelers, especially when it comes to green prawns. You want prawns with long feelers that taper off to a fine point. If they are short and blunt, like they've been snapped off, the prawns likely haven't been frozen or handled carefully enough.