Most appreciated shellfish
Prawns from Sanlúcar are one of the Cadiz’s most renowned gastronomic treasures. This authentic wild shellfish has become a gourmet product for Spain’s most exclusive palates. Their singular characteristics makes them something particularly special: the qualities of the privileged environment in which it’s reared and the type of food it eats, based on seaweed and small crustaceans, give it an intensity and a particularity in its taste. An exquisite bite!
Prawns are a crustacean from the same family as shrimps. In fact, their appearance is very similar, although when cooked, they differ in that the colours of their horizontal stripes alternate between whitish and orangey-red. Uncooked, the horizontal stripes are light brown and beige.
The type caught in the province is the melicertus kerathurus, similar to the tiger prawn and common in other areas of the Mediterranean. Its distinguishing marks, which allow us to recognise its authenticity, are its thick, long whiskers, its somewhat faded stripes on the back and its iridescent blue tail. They are bred in a privileged environment with a rich biodiversity, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, in the vicinity of the Doñana Natural Park.
They are sold fresh or frozen, and their consumption is on the rise. Some 90,000 kilos of Sanlúcar prawns leave the Sanlúcar fish market (whose fleet is the largest and sells the most) every year.
