Topic: What are these?

[norvegicusbass]

When I order king prawn from my local ( and wonderful ) Indian takeaway they are HUGE! Chunky and very meaty. When I buy king prawns from the supermarket in my endeavours to make my own BIR curry they are a lot smaller and taste nothing like the king prawns from the takeaway. Why is this? Are they not real king prawns from the takeaway? If not what are they and where can I get them? Truly they must be five times the size of the ones from the supermarket.

[Micky Tikka]

sounds like a Lobster curry to me

[Gav Iscon]

Not being funny but they're not those big crab stick king prawns thingy's by any chance?

[norvegicusbass]

sounds like a Lobster curry to me

I am sure Michael they would label it as such if that were the case and probably charge far more. The king prawns do though seem about that size and dont have the typical prawn shape. They are lovely and I am sure that my curries would taste a whole lot better if I could get some of them in place of the water filled prawns I usually have to use.

[norvegicusbass]

Not being funny but they're not those big crab stick king prawns thingy's by any chance?

They seem high quality and very chunky almost like what Michael had said regards lobster. The king prawns from the supermarket seem to ( I know this sounds disgusting ) pop when you bite into them as though they were little bags of water. The takeaway ones are more meaty and substantial. I would ask them at the takeaway but I am far too shy

[Micky Tikka]

Sorry me being silly
Its the way they cut the prawns
sort of butterfly them
makes them look bigger when cooked

[chewytikka]

Hi
The King Prawns they use in a restaurant are usually Bengali fresh water 6

[Invisible Mike]

I was in my nearest Wing Yip supermarket the other day buying a wok and I noticed they had some HUGE prawns in the freezer. I suppose any oriental supermarket could potentially sell a similar product. May be worth you looking into perhaps?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Wing Yip, See Woo, etc., all carry these giant prawns, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "any oriental supermarket".  Any oriental cash-and-carry, maybe.  The numbering indicates the approximate number of prawns to the kilogramme, so the smaller the number the larger the prawn.

** Phil.

[prawnsalad]

When I order king prawn from my local ( and wonderful ) Indian takeaway they are HUGE! Chunky and very meaty. When I buy king prawns from the supermarket in my endeavours to make my own BIR curry they are a lot smaller and taste nothing like the king prawns from the takeaway. Why is this? Are they not real king prawns from the takeaway? If not what are they and where can I get them? Truly they must be five times the size of the ones from the supermarket.

I asked the very same question to my local TA owner some time ago. He said they use U5 prawns (under 5 per pound.) Other than that they are just cut for effect.