Contributed by Debasish Roy
Visakhapatnam was an oft repeated name when India was a socialist backyard and Indians were die-hard followers of Soviet propaganda. That small town was smaller than it is now and was a favourite among school children as mentioning it in social studies exams meant easy marks as the great V was a shipyard. Well, now you don’t find people discussing the town so much as there are many more small and medium sized ship yards now including a private sector one belonging to the Adani group.
However, Vishakhapatnam should also be famous for something else: Prawn curry. My last visit was a glide through heaven as every afternoon I used to walk down to the wharf and sit at a small shop with benches and raised benches (the raised ones served as tables) I did not ask for the menu as these places never had one. A short, dark boy would plumb down a metal bowl full of at least half a kilo of prawns swimming in red chilli gravy. Yummm.
I used to take the battered Hindalco spoon and scrape the last morsel out of the bowl in nearly half an hour. Half an hour for half a kilo of prawns, not bad at all…. burrrp.
Those days, Visakhapatnam was a quiet town with very few cigarette stalls. I never smoke so never had a problem. But it was common to see other visitors from the east and the south gasping for a smoke and drowning it all in hot prawn curry. Not a bad way to prevent a bad habit.
- Debasish
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That Prawn Curry sounds great Debashish. I wish I could get an hindalco spoon or any other implement into that. As for the red hot chillies in it. Slurrp ……
u have nice bog,..
the prawns sounds delicious…
@notyet100: Thank you!
@Red hot chilli: Thank you, I’m sure they were!
Great article I’m a big prawn lover and these sound fantastic, I would go as far as saying I like prawns more than lobster.
Hi Richard – Yup, I love prawns too! I find the medium ones have the best flavor and bite – the larger ones tend to be less ‘prawny’.
Prawns are just fantastic, but i have never tried them with curry. looks like i have something to try out now.
thanks
Here in Norway we cannot get any prawns in the winter…
When you show me this i just can’t wait for the summer to come! (as if i could before)
Keep up the good work.
Don’t your shops sell frozen prawns? I’m pretty sure that they did in Sweden when I lived there.
Yes, you can get frozen prawns in Norway. But certainly not everywhere. And frozen prawns are not the same as fresh ones anyway, but that goes for everything i guess..
I for one, don’t like frozen prawns one bit – they seem to have lost most of their flavor and texture.