Went to buy prawns the other day and noticed that there were probably ten different varieties on sale, varying in size and location - Eduacor, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, etc. Is there really any one body of water in the world that, by consensus, has the best tasting prawns? For what it's worth, I love the larger ones grilled with a little olive oil. Makes me hungry thinking about it

As a general principle .... everything else being equal .... fresh cold water prawns - and for that matter most seafood - will always taste better than prawns from warmer water areas. I guess it's because they grow slower and they work harder for their food. So you should be guided by the geography of the waters rather than anything else. The more Northerly the water sourcing ... the more flavour. Farming or non-farming effects taste less that the North / South consideration.

With larger prawns the majority will be farmed - and farmed in warmer water. So these prawns with almost no intrinsic flavour rely more on the flavours added when cooking - and their display value ie they are attractive on the plate - than their natural flavour. To be frank I think this is a food where eating with your eyes sometimes deceived the palate and it is curries, garlic, grilling etc that makes the flavour in wamer water prawns. To be fair, when you grill you intensify the latent flavour by water reduction and caramelising sugars therefore increasing the small amount of natural flavour. Basically I have yet to taste a tiger prawn or other large warm water prawn au naturel that has any worthy discernable flavour. It's what's added or done.

In the UK sadly our best seafood ie oysters, crab, langoustine etc is exported to other countries who appreciate it more - it is worthy of tears ..... but many UK people still think that the best local "prawns" are the very small fresh brown shrimps you can sometimes buy if you are in the right place at the right time.

You know, that is interesting considering how much you hear about Gulf Coast shrimp. The ones I bought this weekend were Mediterranean. Sounds like I should have bought the North Atlantic. I learn something every day on FT.

There's also a texture thing about those big, grilled prawns that I find very appealing.

Don't tell me that! I'm still likely going to be moving to the UK next year.

I think the clue is in the reason why they say "North Atlantic" rather than just "Atlantic" ...

Texture point is an interesting one. If you think about texture with respect to meat ie fillet or rib-eye steak v other the better the meat the "less" texture and the more latent texture ie ignoring slow cooking etc the less flavour. I think it's the same muscle argument with seafood. And so with prawns. It seems to me that the less taste the more texture and the more flavour the less texture or chewiness if you like.

Local markets will always seek marketing advantage by selling "localness" and romantic branding ....

When you come to the uk you'll just need to work harder ....

I think that the key is you need to find a brand, location, farm, type that you like. The reason they have bred most of the flavor out of the farm ones is because people want them that way (and want the fake ones too). They want shrimp that doesn't taste like shrimp.

No, I don't know why.

Without a doubt, the best I've ever had was on the dock in Oslo, the boats were cooking them as they came in and you bought it hot off the back of the boat. One of those shrimps had the flavor of a pound of pretty much everything else.

In our local markets, the fresh wild caught from the Gulf of Mexico are probably the most flavorful we can easily get, but again, there are some people who don't like them when we have them, they taste too "fishy"

Everything I've looked up on cold water shrimp indicates that they are the tiny critters, about 50-100+/lb, always sold shelled and pre-cooked. Is this correct?

Very small ... shrimp sort of means "very small".

They are either normally shelled and sold like that. .. or more often in the uk they would be "potted" ie they are shelled and mixed with butter and cayenne pepper and put into pots (they are preserved for longer this way and Brits will then spread them on toast - it use to be a sort of Sunday "tea" treat) or sold in their shells. When sold in their shells some shell them (very picky) and some will eat them with their shells on.

These are my favorite - but I live on the beach, so I'm a little biased. They actually taste like shrimp (which is probably the "fishy" taste people don'tlike).h

I'm ashamed to say that some of the frozen prawns are so awful .... I love to substitute good quality chopped up crab sticks with marie rose sauce ( just salad cream and ketchup) with some lettuce in sandwiches.

We get some lovely large frozen prawns here unfortunately most of the time we get a load of crap ones and they don't come cheap.
Consistency in food quality here is awful....you just don't know what you're going to get....same applies to the smoked salmon. The UK is seafood paradise in comparison even the supermarket stuff.

Worst prawns I've had have always been those large pink ones airlines serve....tough as old boots they are.

So where would you go in the UK for fresh seafood? It's been ten years since I lived there, but I don't remember any of the supermarkets having a fresh fish counter.

Most supermarkets these days do have fish counters, but the quality is really variable and I only really buy prawns and smoked fish from there. If I'm wanting good fish, I go to a fishmonger. I have one I go to which only smells of the sea, not of fish.

In London there are several really excellent fishmongers - Moxon's in Clapham being amongst the best. A trip to one of the farmer's markets (or Borough) will also provide.

Waitrose also have a pretty good fresh fish counter.

While I generally agree that colder water = more flavor, I have to put in the strongest vote for wild (non farm) Gulf of Mexico shrimp, the flavor is amazing and puts to shame every other prawns I've had. Gulf shrimp consistently provide that wow shrimp flavor, no matter the preparation.

BC Spot prawns get a lot of attention locally and they are both cold water and on the larger side.