prawn fest or bust

A couple of months ago I get a excited phone call from my best friend, Jamyra, telling me of Dublin's annual Prawn Festival and that I have to go.  Keep in mind that this friend currently lives in Iowa (landlocked) and has never been to Ireland.  She called while I was out having drinks with some friends (Maria and Dave) to which they respond:

"I have never been to the Prawn Festival and I have lived here for eight years!"

Despite, what we consider, being right on the sea Dublin is surprisingly lacking in seafood culture.  You can get smoked salmon and of course battered fried fish everywhere and anywhere, but steaming bowls of mussels, raw oysters and fresh prawns are few and far in between.  Don't get me wrong, you can buy plenty of super fresh fish and cockles from the local fish monger, but restaurant menus in Dublin can make you feel hundreds of miles from the sea.  The Irish do love their meat.

So leave it to American landlocked chef to discover a local seafood epicentre happening within a couple months of our arrival to Dublin.

It turns out that Dublin is just far enough from the coast to not have a heritage of fishing and seafood.  Go out west though, to Galway and you'll find little else.  After living in Wyoming and Colorado for the past six years we are closer to the ocean than ever.  Why isn't there more seafood?

Flash forward to one sunny Sunday afternoon in April when Niall and I decide to take the train out to Howth for a hike on the coast.  We packed sandwiches and rain jackets and dressed for an adventure.  The train was packed with people and with no place to sit I stood by the window thinking, when is that prawn festival happening that Jam was telling us about?  Instead of asking the outward bound passengers I consulted google and discovered what I am sure they would have told me - the Prawn Fest was that very day in Howth!

Goodbye ham sandwiches and water.  Hello raw oysters and white wine.

There is very little else I love more in this world than fresh seafood.  And oh how I love the little seaside towns that honor it.

This was our first time out to Howth and we were welcomed with floods of people outside enjoying the sunshine among a windy harbour filled with sailboats and kite surfers.  Immediately we "stumbled" upon Beshoff's Market and fall in love.  Here is the fish market I have been looking for since we moved to an island.  Loads of fresh fish with their heads still on.  Bags of cockles resting in ice.  And a white marble bar lined with people enjoying raw oysters and glasses of Guinness.  It was tough not to just call it there but we determined that Beshoff's will always be there, the Prawn Fest wont.  And so we treck on.

Under a big white tent we enjoyed a steaming "bowl" of mussels, fresh oysters and baked seafood pasta.  Then we got to the real fun pealing plates of prawns in a chili lime sauce and others with garlic oil.  Finger lickin'...

It was hard to get a straight answer about what exactly the difference is between a prawn and a shrimp.  Alton Brown says prawns are just really big shrimp.  Of course biologically they are different animals, but where cooking is concerned it might not be that big of a deal:

While different varieties of shrimp and prawns vary in taste and texture, those differences do not divide along "shrimp" and "prawn" lines. In short, while shrimp and prawns are not the same, they are interchangeable in the kitchen. So choose your shrimp or prawns based on how they taste, what size you want, and if they've been caught or raised in an environmentally responsible way. (On that last note, see Seafood Watch for more information.)  - Local Foods/about

After a long walk on the pier debating the pros and cons to living on a sailboat while we digest our food we finished our day with a delicious 99 cone.  A soft serve vanilla ice cream with a chocolate flake in it (Niall's favorite).

Our only regret of the day is not remembering the festival sooner so Maria and Dave could have come along.  Next year.