Spot On!

There was a new stand at the Point Richmond farmer's market last week, set up by a friendly, gangling young man from Alaska. He grew up in Alaska and has lots of fisherman friends - a young man we definitely wanted to get to know! He was selling spot prawns.

Wild caught, jetted down from those cold, cold waters, he was offering small size or large and suggesting that they be cooked with garlic butter.

He recommended that I sauté them lightly with garlic butter. Or steam them briefly and dip them in garlic butter. Or, alternatively, they could be grilled and slathered with garlic butter. His last suggestion was barbecuing and then - you guessed it! - garlic butter.

Who am I to buck such good advice? I bought a pound of those big beauties and took them home to sauté very briefly and served them with a nice artichoke, also from the farmer's market. The still-warm shrimp were the sweetest I have ever tasted, bar none. We stripped off the shells and followed the young man's advice about the you-know-what. Turns out, garlic butter is also good with artichokes.

We had enough left over for a nice salad the next day, when they were equally delicious cold.

Our young man will return next Wednesday with more prawns, plus salmon, rockfish and, if he can find some, halibut as well. Needless to say, we will be there in line since our first taste of his wares was spot on.