Hell no, we can savor prediction of ihearted yo. I'm Any Reese.
And I'm Lorn vogel Bum. And today we have an episode for you about giant tiger prawns.
Yes, oh, you know we love these seafood episodes.
Oh they're so cool. They're so weird. Sea creatures are so strange, and I love them so much. Oh, this is our first shrimp episode. We have been so remiss, but it's fine. It's finally here.
I couldn't believe it when you told me that, how have we never done?
Oh, I mean we've done like lobsters and crawfish, which are not shrimp, but you know they're also little weird, leggy crustacean buddies.
It's true.
Yeah, I did have shrimp as pets for a long time, and so maybe, you know, like both of us were like, maybe we shouldn't talk about something that Lauren literally keeps as a pet.
On our food show. I will.
I lost the aquarium during the move, but but I'm going to get it back up and running. It is like on the to do list. It's going to happen.
I'm very excited for more updates about this. I was very invested in that aquarium.
And yeah, and more shrimp are coming, so here, here we go. I just love them. They're so busy all the time, they're doing stuff. It's great. Anyway. Note at the top here, Yes, I said that the episode is about giant tiger prawn and then immediately started talking about shrimp. That is because the words shrimp and prawn are in fact synonyms. Some people have tried to make them have real definitions, but everybody else insists on being real chaotic about it. So here we are.
I'm glad you put that note up there, because I really was trying to make sure I was getting everything correct, because a prawn, to me, feels so much bigger than a shrimp.
See etymologically sure, Yeah, let's go with that.
Yeah.
Like, people are really confused about how this has occurred because like, like some people are like, well, maybe it's because the word shrimp also means small. Yeah, and so for some people the word prawn means something bigger, but other people use them in kind of the opposite way.
So we don't know.
No, no, we don't know.
Okay, Well, it is a fascinating episode, complicated in many ways.
The seafood industry typically is.
Yes, that was an actual crack. You could hear a voice, Yes, but we have spoken about it before.
Sure, yeah, right, we did do that lobster in that crawfish or crayfish episode if you if you prefer, they are perhaps the most biologically pertinent seafood episodes we've done. Also, definitely check out our big fish industry episode from the Oahu episodes for a kind of macro look at the complexities of fishing production.
Yeah, yes, which we are going to get into a little bit. Oh yeah here, but I suppose that brings us to our question. Sure, Giant tiger prons what are they?
Well, Giant tiger prowns are a type of crustacean that is a leggy animal that wears its skeleton on the outside of its body and typically lives in the water. Giant tiger prawns have long bodies, consisting of a carapace containing the head and like most of the internal organs, and then an abdomen containing a big, fleshy tail muscle. And this is the part that we humans are mostly interested in eating. Plus, it's got ten legs on the underside of their bodies to help them move around. And
grab stuff. Their shell is firm but slightly flexible and a little bit translucent, sort of like our fingernails. It's in segments like armor, and can range in color from rusty brown to gray blue in color, with this characteristic striping in bands around their tail in contrasting black and white, hence the name tiger. Yeah, they're called giant because they're
big for a shrimp. They can grow a little bit over a foot long and like a couple inches thick, that's about thirty by six centimeters or so, and they can weigh nearly a pound, like a little bit less than half a kilo. They can be cooked whole in their shells, maybe roasted, grilled, steamed, or boiled, after which they might be served cut open so that you can pick out the tail meat. You can also remove the carapaces and legs and just cook the tail portion, or
even just the tail meat. When it's raw. The meat is slightly translucent white in color with a thin silvery gray skin, and when it's cooked it'll go opaque white with a bright orange pink skin. The tail meat is tender, chewy like sort of springy or bouncy kind of and savory sweet and a little rich and briny in flavor. They're tasty on their own and can be served with just a little bit of like lemon juice or butter
and a sprinkle of herbs. But that sweet, rich flavor goes well with all kinds of sauces or in soups or stews. They're big, tasty shrimp. Eating. Eating good shrimp like these gives me the same feeling as laying out on warm sand or like on a hot stone surface at a spa. It's just the sense of like light fulfillment.
Yeah, good shrimp, good shrimp, right texture, right seasonings. Oh, it's just it makes you want to be by the water.
Yeah, it's very sublime.
Yeah it is. Well.
The animals are also super cool before we eat.
Them, okay.
A taxonomical name Penius monodon giant tiger prawns are in native to the Indian Ocean and warm parts of the West Pacific, stretching from like Southeast Africa over across to Australia and then up through southern Japan. They live near coastlines at the ocean's floor, burrowing in the mud or sand, and they're mostly active at night. The female shrimp tend to be a little bit bigger than the males, and
they live for about three years. In the wild, they'll head into like brackish river estuaries to mate and lay eggs in like calm lagoons or mangrove shelters. I read that they can lay over eight hundred thousand eggs in one go.
WHOA.
Most of those will not survive, but here we are. The eggs sink to the bottom and hatches larvae, which go through a few metamorphoses while floating around like plankton until they develop legs. Five pairs of short swimmerrats on the underside of their abdomen or tail to help them propel through the water, and then on the underside of
their carapus or kind of head. They've got five pairs of more articulated walking legs, the front three of which end in these teen s pincers for grabbing and manipulating objects. At the front of the carapus, they have two pairs of long antennae that they use to help feel what's going on around them, and weird little beady eyes on these short eyestalks. As they grow in size, they molt
their shells and grow new ones. They are predator, and I understand they can be pretty aggressive towards other small crustaceans, which are their primary food source. But most of the giant tiger prowns that we eat come from farms, either outdoor ponds or indoor tanks, and uh yeah there, we
eat them in whatever way you enjoy eating seafood. Shrimp are always interesting because, like they're kind of mild, but they've got those different flavor aspects that lend themselves to a lot of different dishes, Like that sweetness can play well with bright or tart flavors, that the richness can stand up to spicy flavors, the savory ness can play alongside like earthy or vegetable sort of flavors. Just a nice protein.
Yeah, yeah, I have had a realization lately that I've always thought shrimp was like seafood light, Like if you are a little nervous about seafood.
You don't, Yeah, if you don't really like fishy flavors, then shrimp might be a good good intro for you. Yeah.
Yes, But I've heard from a couple of friends they don't like shrimp, and I don't want to do with this information. I think it's a bad texture based on what they describe kind of that watery texture like ill cooked shrimp. I see, this is an experiment for me to work on later. What about the nutrition.
Shrimp by themselves are pretty good for you, you know, good source of protein and micronutrients. They contain some good fats. They do contain dietary cholesterol, but the science jury is out about whether that really affects most people's blood cholesterol levels. If it's a thing that you're watching out for, watch out for that. Mind your shrimp portion sizes. If you're lucky enough to be able to afford to do so. Yes, indeed, well we do have some numbers for you. We do
no monetary ones though, Okay. Shrimp in general are the most consumed seafood in the United States. Global production of giant tiger prowns in particular is around seven hundred and seventy thousand metric tons per year. Vietnam produces about thirty five percent of that, mostly on small pond farms, and they are the second most farm shrimp in the world,
at only about eleven percent of total farm shrimp. They were the leading farmed species up until about twenty years ago when white leg shrimp, which can be raised at higher densities, surpassed them. White leg shrimp are now some eighty three percent of farm shrimp production.
Dang, yeah, okay, okay, well we do have a history for you on this one.
Oh my, heck, we do. We again, the seafood industry is very complex, so we will get into that, oh boy, will we as soon as we get back from a quick word from our sponsors.
And we're back.
Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you.
Okay. So, giant tiger prawns are indigenous to the Philippines, Australia, and Southeast Asia. Oh we don't know how old the species is, but decapods, a varied category of crustaceans that includes shrimp, evolved four hundred and fifty million years ago and they're still researching this, by the way.
Cool yeah, love it.
Yep yeah, yep. So probably pretty old and generally speaking, humans with access to shrimp have been eating them since prehistoric times. Records indicate that the ancient Romans and Greeks had ready access to them and enjoyed them in a variety of ways. While the written record is sparse, historians believe that larger shrimp. Like giant tiger prawns, were eaten boiled similarly to lobster, or in soups. They may have also been roasted or used as an ingredient in patties
like simply patties. For more than a century, at least, Indo Pacific coastal cities and towns in the areas where great tiger prowns spawn naturally have been farming them on a small scale. In the early days, they were cultivated with other species of shrimp, usually in ponds. The first known scientific description of the tiger prown was by J. C. Fabricus in seventeen ninety eight, is also the one that
proposed the scientific name and then jumping way ahead. In the nineteen thirties, there were several breakthroughs and advances in shrimp farming at large.
Yeah, basically like getting shrimp larvae to survive in captivity was a bit tricky. Research started in Japan, but then moved to places like Tahiti, China, and Taiwan in the nineteen sixties due to climate conditions being more favorable. Through the sixties and into the seventies, there were advancements in intensive farming, increasing yields and decreasing costs with shrimp farming.
Early on in this the main shrimp species being worked with was the giant tiger prawn because they're relatively adaptable.
Yes, so research on breeding of the giant tiger prawn and on the flavor compounds that make them so tasty really got underway in the nineteen seventies. From nineteen seventy eight to nineteen ninety one, the tiger prown was one of six species of peniad shrimp sent to Hawaii for research purposes, and thanks in part to this research, commercial farms started opening in Thailand nineteen seventy two, and they soon dominated the global market for farm raised tiger prawns,
and commercial production really took off soon after that. During the nineteen seventies and eighties, global production of the tiger prawn suppressed any other species of shrimp. A lot of this was accomplished through technological innovations and farming in places outside of the shrimp's natural range where the conditions were suitable,
like West Africa and the Caribbean. However, this had unintended consequences, and many of those places around potentially introducing an invasive species after some of the shrimp escaped from farms or labs that they were being kept in Colombia, Venezuela, West Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the US all have similar stories about tiger prawn shrimp escaping into the wild and in some cases establishing a population. The ramifications are still being
studied in these places. For instance, tiger prowns were most likely introduced to the US by accident after some escaped in South Carolina in nineteen eighty eight. Only about three hundred of the original two thousand were recovered, although another source put it at much higher. They said it was like a thousand were recovered, but I both places said
three hundred. Yeah. And it wasn't until two thousand and six that someone reported catching a tiger prown outside of this initial recovery along the coast of the US, and then a handful followed after that in states like Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and North Carolina. Over the years, other tiger prawns have escaped from American labs during things like hurricanes. Reported sightings of these shrimp have increased since two thousand and six,
with a particular spike beginning in twenty eleven. They are now found in bodies of water from Texas to North Carolina in the US, but most experts don't think they have established a population. However, others do and think that we need to be trying to pin down how big it is.
Yeah, it can be a problem because they prey on native crustacean species and they can also carry diseases that can spread to to native species. So if you do fish around the Gulf of Mexico or along the east coast of the US, and you do giant tiger prons, it is scientifically recommended that you do not throw them back. Like environmental researchers want you to eat them, yes, yes, and report them, report them and then eat them. Yeah, yes, or in whatever order you need to work that out.
Yeah. Right.
Another problem that arose during this time was when farmers started finding a top limit on intensive shrimp farming. The first big production crash came around nineteen eighty seven to nineteen eighty nine and Taiwan they were farming giant tiger prons and during this two year period they lost eighty percent of their yield due to stress and pollution and ensuing diseases. In the shrimp populations there, And this next note isn't necessarily about giant tiger prons, but I had
to include it. And they were by far still the most farm shrimp when this occurred, so it's probably not not about them, okay. The Japanese Emperor Hirohito passed away in nineteen eighty nine, posthumously, becoming known as Emperor Shoa, and his death was a big deal and there were like a couple months of mourning and ceremony leading up to the funeral, and it's thought that it caused a
farm shrimp market crash. Prices of shrimp that farmers could get for their wares fell by almost fifty percent that year. The theory is that so Japan was the largest market for shrimp at that time, partially because shrimp are associated with celebration in a lot of segments of Japanese culture and the country was in mourning, so they stopped buying shrimp, and this unfortunately coincided with an oversupply of shrimp in general. So yeah, he Ahito's death caused a shrimp market crash.
Don't worry it bounce back.
It did, but wow, a lot of thing to put on your obituary. All right, so yes. Meanwhile, doing all of this, tiger prawn saw a pretty big boost in popularity in the US and elsewhere in the nineteen nineties. They were featured on bar and restaurant menus, in part because the increased awareness to food chefs that hadn't been exposed to it before, and in part because of the
rise of fusion restaurants. This was just We've talked about this a lot before, but that time period was a We're getting cable TV food shows, we see all that kind of stuff, so people were getting like, hello, I want to try this thing. That being said, things weren't all looking up with concerns around over fishing made worse by disease and pollution, lowering projected population growth because there was this like graph that was saying, oh shrimp for days.
Yeah, I got to be going up forever. And then it was like, oh, that's not how systems work in nature.
That's just not correct.
Nope.
Yes, in two thousand and four, a tiger prawn farm was set up in Florida, but it never took off. And yeah, there is a lot of ongoing research about the impact of this invasive species of shrimp in the US to the environment and native species. Researchers are also looking into where they may be coming from, which is actually really interesting to me because it's like, is it currents? Is it? Yeah? What is it? Like?
How do you track shrimp? Like even footlong shrimp are still you know, in comparison to the oceans.
So yes, it's really interesting and the numbers are tricky to get to since a lot of it depends on people reporting a sighting or a catch. So again, if you see one. Research has already been done about the population that has established itself in Colombian waters after attempts at controlled aquaculture failed. Research is also being done on over fishing, responsible shrimp farming practices and the impact on people who live in areas where tiger prawns are a big part of the economy.
Yeah, as with any segment of the fishing industry, responsible and sustainable aquaculture and fishing practices for a giant tiger prown are concern and are also real complicated, like even when buyers, when consumers are educated about why sustainability is important, finding sustainable practices takes a lot of work and the tools that we have to do so aren't really meant for like the small farms that most of the world's supply of giant tiger prowns are raised on, researchers and
organizations are working on it. For example, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is currently helping Vietnamese farmers receive assessment and improve their production methods if necessary. I get the idea that, as with the Certified Organic label on American produce, small farms might be doing everything sustainably but just not have the resources to get certified. But a bunch of groups are working with the farmers on this, so that's cool.
And as always, as a consumer, resources like the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch can help you identify certified, sustainable and best choice seafood options. When buying any packaged seafood product, you can look for labels on the packaging like ASC Certified, Farmed Responsibly or BAP certified. Those are going to indicate products that have come from farms that have certification from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council or the Best Aquaculture Practices Program, respectively.
So it's it's complicated, and it's a headache, and sometimes you just really want to eat shrimp, but you know it's it's it's worth, it's worth feeling good about the thing if you have the time and resources to do so.
Yes, this was definitely an episode where I was like, I really want to eat this, but now I've got a yeah, try to be responsible. But now that we've done the research, I'm like, okay, so I really need to listen to some of these things. I did find a restaurant that I trust that has.
The Oh that's great. Yeah, I see, And that's that's a terrific thing. Like when you know food professionals who are in the industry and who work with sourcing, who who work with sources for these kind of things. Yeah, I have done have done the legwork for you. Yes, the thank you, the decapod legwork. Yeah, that's a little legs busy like the dance. Oh A one note that
I should have chimed in with. I didn't think I was going to get to follow you up on it, but you mentioned the flavors of these shrimp, and I did. I didn't write it down, but I did find a note about how most of the sweet flavors in shrimp actually come from different amino acids and so what you feed them perhaps obviously has a big impact on that and getting like the right type of proteins to them so that their bodies can use those building blocks to make their flesh tasty.
It was very interesting to read scientific papers about the taste of shrimp and reading for certain taste. I assume that's kind of what you do when you describe how food taste during our what is it sectually?
So yeah, I mean, except they've got they've got very expensive equipment to help them figure it out.
So yes, yes, well this is the first of I'm sure many shrimp episodes. Oh I hope so oh mean too. We do love the seafood ones, even though they usually do have a depressing yeah depressing note, But they're so interesting.
They are they really are what what amazing? What amazing critters so tasty and butter.
Hmmm mm hmmmmm. Well, okay, that is what we have to say about the giant tiger prawn for now.
It is uh and we would love to hear from you if y'all have any recipes or personalized knowledge about any of this, we would of course love to hear it. We do already have some listener mail for you though, and we are going to get into that as soon as we get back from one more quick break forward from our sponsors, and we're back.
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with Tiger Shrip.
I get the pounds and then all the little leggy's going yeah, yeah, yeah.
There was a lot of action happening that you listeners couldn't see, but I think it was communicated. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right. Valerie wrote, I recently listened to your episode about the Horn and Hardart Automat. I have eaten there. I grew up in NYC, and one of the last lingering automat restaurants was still there when I was a
little kid. In the episode, you called it H and H, but in my experience, nobody ever called it that, possibly because there was a legendary NYC bagel shop called H and H and having two H and h's would have been confusing. In my recollection, people always called it the Automat. I remember eating there two or three times with my mom in the early nineteen seventies or maybe the very late sixties, when we were out shopping at a giant
department store and needed a quick meal alas. I remember always being given a dry and incredibly bland tuna sandwich on white bread. Hopefully that was just chosen for me as kid food and the grown ups had better options. Now I feel old, but also glad to have experienced a peace of history.
Oh it's so cool that you got to go. I mean cool, Sorry that you had a bad sandwich like three times, but.
I think they're so aesthetically pleasing. Yeah, like every picture I've seen of them, I would have been like, even if the sandwich was bad, I think I would have been like, you would have had a good time. Yeah, this is cool. Yeah, they are beautiful. Ah, there's just something fun too about vending. Yeah. Yeah, it almost feels kind of arcadey. Yeah right, totally. Oh heck, oh they're totally right about that H and H thing.
Oh yeah no, that would not stand.
No.
And also the fact that people just called it the automat is. I mean perhaps that should have been obvious to everyone. Yeah, like yeah, yeah, guess yeah. Christine wrote you wanted to know about Krispy Kreme. So here is a brief tale about Krispy Kreme in Australia and the sad fate of Dunkin Donuts in Australia and how neither have won the donut war down under. Dunkin Donuts arrived
in Australia first in the late nineteen eighties. I honestly don't recall if I ever tried them, and I can't now because they closed their last shop in the early two thousands. Apparently there was quite a fanfare at first. People tried them for a while for the novelty, than they just died. Krispy Kreme got started up here around twenty ten and are still going. While they have some shops in Kiosks, most of their sales are via supermarkets,
which I think is why there's still a presence here. Again, when they launched there was a bit of a novelty. Then most people tended to pass them over in favor of local alternatives. See Contrary to what you might read on the Internet, Australians actually love donuts. Our love affair with donuts is long. We just like different donuts. The base donut is far less sweet. Iced donuts with sprinkles are popular, icing through to a frosting th aglaze, as
are cream and jam filled donuts. But the undisputed King of Donuts. Here is the plain cinnamon sugar topped donut. Australian recipes for these go back to the mid nineteenth century. They're a popular option with coffee up, particularly to eat on the go. Most bakeries and cafes have cinnamon donuts and a few different iced ones for sale. And then there's Donut King. Donut King started in Sydney in nineteen eighty one and by the end of the decade had
started to expand nationally. Around the same time, Dunkin Donuts tried to establish themselves. Ask just about any Australian and aside from some gourmet, very local options, Donut King's cinnamon donut is considered the best. They still make the basic mix in each store and the donut cooker is going all day. You literally couldn't get them fresher. They also make dinosaur donuts and Donut King also has good coffee. I've yet to meet an American cafe coffee that can
compete with Australian cafe coffee. Taking a second on that one harsh words going back to Christine, but faced with the choice between a really really sweet, rather stiff and possibly slightly stale crispy cream donut or a super fresh, soft and pillowy donut with a crispy cinnamon sugar topping. Which one are you gonna pick? Ps. You used to be able to get triceratops and t rex donuts from
Donut King. Sadly they look more like lizards now, though I suppose you could call them a diplodocus at a stretch and no paciocephalosaurus.
Well, congrats on the pronunciation, Lauren.
I'm never sure if it's diplodocus or diplodocus.
So, but here, the fact that you have opinions and two different options is amazing. I love this. I also love donut opinions. I think this is fantastic. Oh yeah, I love that old Dunkin Donuts tried their best Krispy Kreme.
Barely hanging on by a nail. Yeah, But Donut King, yeah the King.
I think I had Donut King when I was in Australia. Yeah, I think so, that was when I was in my big donut fhase, so I feel like I must have yeah, and I love cinnamon. Sure, So I mean that does sound lovely. That sounds like a like a nice like just just you know not again not too sweet. Yeah, yeah, Dinosaur Donuts also Dinosaur donuts what I mean, I mean the coffee. That's funny. I don't know enough about Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts coffee to really make a statement on that one.
I Americans do just have. We we have very strong opinions about our coffee.
Yes, and I don't.
I feel like most of the time at a like a kind of fast food cafe like that, you're gonna get kind of burnt coffee. But but I feel like I have a good emotion about it.
Yeah. Sometimes if you know what you're getting, sometimes you're like, it's burnt coffee.
Yeah, it tastes like the inside of a diesel engine, and that's what you're going for.
Yeah, exactly, That's what I need right now. That's okay. But I do love this. Yeah. Yeah, please everyone keep sending in international donuts. Yeah, oh oh absolutely. Yeah. And it is. It is very just I just realized.
Yeah, like like I rolled right through the dinosaur name pronunciations, but the coffee comment stopped me cold right, Yeah, very very on brand of me.
Yes, it is. It is. People take their coffee serious. I do.
Yeah, Lauren is.
One of them. Yes, well, thanks to both of these listeners to writing in. If you would like to write in, you can. You can email us at hello atsavorpod dot com.
We're also on social media. You can find us on Instagram and Blue Sky. Yes, those are the two where we've landed at savor Pod and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. But thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots more good things are coming your way