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Crustacean guide
The world’s most ordered shellfish — sweet, quick-cooking, and brilliant from garlic oil to charcoal grills.
Cold-water wild
Argentine red shrimp
Pleoticus muelleri · sweet, fast-cooking
Taste: Sweet, delicate, and slightly oceanic; head-on prawns taste richer from the shell juices.
Season: Farmed and wild supply is year-round; peak local seasons vary by coast.
Habitat: Warm coastal waters and aquaculture ponds worldwide; wild pink/tiger prawns differ by region.
Species & fisheries
Cold-water animals grow slowly and taste sweeter; warm-water tigers and whites take heat and spice. Filter by habitat, then match count size to the recipe below.
Global standardLitopenaeus vannamei
The farmed default on most menus — mild, clean sweetness and a firm snap when you do not overcook it.
Typical count: 21/25 · 26/30
Colossal tigerPenaeus monodon
Dark banding and real mass — the prawn that reads like lobster meat on a grill.
Typical count: U/10 · U/12
Sashimi gradePandalus platyceros
Two white spots on the first segment — sweet enough for amaebi when the season is right.
Typical count: Wild trap 12/16
Wild South AtlanticPleoticus muelleri
Already red in the case — cooks faster than white farmed tails and tastes almost lobster-sweet.
Typical count: 10/20 · 16/20
Deep AtlanticAristaeopsis edwardsiana
Deep-water crimson shell — the head coral is the point, not an afterthought.
Typical count: Colossal U/8
Arctic fisheriesPandalus borealis
Tiny wild shrimp for cocktails and open sandwiches — sweetness in a small package.
Typical count: 90/120 · 150/250
Gulf heritageFarfantepenaeus aztecus
Wild Gulf trawl shrimp — mineral, iodine, and enough chew for Cajun spice and cast-iron BBQ.
Typical count: 16/20 · 21/25
Deep shelfPleoticus robustus
Caught far down the continental slope — soft texture with scallop-like sweetness if you stay gentle.
Typical count: 16/20 wild
Colossal count
Skip STPP soaks
Head weight
Done, not rubber
Commercial sizing
U/10 means under ten shrimp per pound. Headless counts look “smaller” for the same number because the head is roughly a third of the weight — adjust portions when you peel.
Select count label
Weight per piece
48 g
About 1.7 oz raw per shrimp
Good fit: Split-back grill, head-on plancha, butter-poached centerpieces.
Timing (per side unless noted)
Pull when the flesh is opaque and the curl looks like a relaxed “C”. A tight “O” usually means rubbery and dry.
Buying & anatomy
Supermarket bags are often phosphate-treated — they look plump until the pan weeps milky water. Head-on shells still carry the best pan sauce; the back vein is optional on tiny counts, worth it on jumbo.
Sodium tripolyphosphate forces water into the meat — glassy raw shells, no sear, sometimes a soapy finish. Ask for dry-pack or labels that list only shrimp and salt.
The dark dorsal line is the digestive tract — harmless when cooked but gritty in large shrimp. Slit the back shallowly and lift it out. The faint belly line is the nerve cord; leave it.
The hepatopancreas in the head concentrates fat and glutamates. Sear head-on for gambas, paella, and bisque — then simmer shells for stock instead of throwing them away.
Recipes
Scale the shopping list for our published gambas al ajillo page — then open the full recipe for steps and city links.
Dinner portions
Tapas · high heat
Gambas al ajillo
~10 min prep · ~4 min cook · 4 servings scaled below
Pat shrimp dry, infuse oil with garlic on medium-low, then flash-sear — full walkthrough on the recipe page.
Open full gambas recipe →Also on the site: Portuguese cataplana, Singapore chilli crab (crab-forward, shared seafood pot).
Near you
We match the shrimp & shellfish category, then boost rooms that name prawns, gambas, or scampi on the listing.
Or start from a focus city:
Supply chain
Wholesalers and specialists with public profiles — useful when you want to trace cold-water pinks or live spot prawns back to a name.
Seattle · USA
Pacific Northwest shrimp & shellfish
Wholesale and retail shellfish on the Puget Sound corridor — spot prawn season shows up here first.
Supplier profile →British Columbia · Canada
Live spot prawns
BC live spot prawn supply — the sashimi-grade trap fishery west-coast counters watch every spring.
Supplier profile →Norway
Cold-water pink shrimp
Nordic cold-water processing — the small sweet pinks that end up on Scandinavian smørrebrød and cocktails.
Supplier profile →At the table
Prawns and shrimp are the global seafood default: they cook in minutes, take spice and citrus well, and show up from Spanish gambas to Gulf BBQ and Japanese tempura. On menus the words overlap; in the case, size and smell matter more than the label.
Use the species cards and count calculator above for portions and timing, then the restaurant map for rooms that actually feature shellfish.
Look for firm bodies, a clean sea smell, and shells that are not sticky or glassy. Frozen can be excellent if it was frozen fresh — thaw in the fridge and pat completely dry before a sear.
Prefer dry-pack or chemical-free labels. Phosphate soaks (STPP) add water weight and kill browning. Head-on shells add sauce for grills; peeled tails are faster for garlic oil.
High heat, short clock: once the flesh is opaque and the curl looks like a relaxed “C”, pull them. Overcooked meat tightens into a rubbery “O”. Garlic oil, charcoal, and salted boiling water are the honest tests of quality.
At restaurants, order the simple preparation first — gambas, scampi, or head-on BBQ — before cream-heavy dishes that hide tired product.
On menus the words are often interchangeable. Biologically, many “prawns” are dendrobranchiates (branching gills, three pairs of claw legs) and many “shrimp” are pleocyemates (lamellar gills, two claw pairs). For cooking, count size and freshness beat taxonomy.
It is the number of shrimp per pound. U/10 means under ten per pound (colossal). 16/20 means between sixteen and twenty per pound. Headless counts look smaller for the same number because the head is roughly a third of the weight.
Sodium tripolyphosphate (E451) is a soak that binds extra water into the meat — up to about a fifth by weight. It can look glassy raw, refuse to sear, and taste faintly soapy. Look for dry-pack or ingredient lists that say shrimp and salt only.
The dark dorsal line is the digestive tract. It is safe when cooked but can be gritty in large shrimp. De-veining is optional on small salad counts; worth it on jumbo. The faint belly line is a nerve cord — leave it.
The head holds fats and glutamates that enrich pan sauces and paella. Head-on Gulf BBQ and Spanish plancha are classic because the juices stay in the pot.