# Tasty prawns **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 3, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232 "2001-11-03T00:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/1 "2001-11-03T00:25:47Z")
Why do restaurants serve prawns with the tails still attached? It makes a mess while I try to clean them at my table. ---
**Author:** ![Doughboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Doughboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughboy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/2 "2001-11-03T00:52:17Z")
Here’s a tip. I’m not sure this works for prawns, but it does for shrimp. If you pinch the tail with your fingers right at the end of the meat, where the fan-shaped part starts, the meat inside the tail part will break off and it’ll slide out of the last bit of the shell. By the way, are you British or do they actually serve prawns here in the US too? ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/3 "2001-11-03T00:56:54Z")
Doughboy: Thank you. I live in the San Francisco, California area. Yes, I know the pinch technique. It isn’t appropriate when one is nicely dressed. My question, however, isn’t how to eat them, but why doesn’t the chef finish cleaning the tasty critters? ---
**Author:** ![geepee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ebca7d/32.png) [@geepee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geepee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/4 "2001-11-03T01:48:15Z")
UK definitions since i worked at a resturant etc: Prawn - small little prawns Shrimp - small little prawns or the big ones King Prawns = shrimp (big prawns) Tiger Prawns = these prawns the size of your hand ---
**Author:** ![PlanMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@PlanMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlanMan)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/5 "2001-11-03T01:53:09Z")
Oh … shrimp … I thought this was a variation on chess - capture a piece and eat it, with, ironically the lowest ranked piece tasting best. never mind ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/6 "2001-11-03T02:24:19Z")
That is just awful! ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/7 "2001-11-03T02:49:19Z")
Since they are not likely to stop doing this soon, here’s something you can try next time you eat prawns or shrimp at a place where using one’s fingers would be deemed inappropriate: [list=1] [li]Use your fork in your left hand to pin the crustacean to the plate. This typically works best near the tail.[/li] [li]With the flat of the spoon (in your right hand) crush the tail where the meat is still inside.[/li] [li]Now place the tip of the spoon farther back, where the tail has no meat and use the spoon to pull the tail fin away from the meat. [/list=1][/li] Voilá! You get all the meat (this may take some practice) and none of the mess or indignity. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/8 "2001-11-03T03:22:47Z")
If you’ve been to a country where they eat (especially farm) a lot of shrimp/prawns, you’ll notice that a lot of the time they simply eat the tails too - I do! Since they are processed there, that’s how they are left… it’s also a pain to pluck tails off all day… you wouldn’t have a handy little handle to pick them up with… they wouldn’t look as fresh or wild (you can buy shelled peeled, cooked, and de-tailed shrimp; but they look bad, like baby mice - Yuck!). Sans tails, how do you know you’re not getting hermit crab asses or the cut-offs from animal nuetering clinics :D? ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/9 "2001-11-03T03:29:40Z")
I like to eat them tails and all. Nice and crunchy. This weirds most people out, including my fiance. ---
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/10 "2001-11-03T04:16:00Z")
Hey bozos! It wasn’t a troll post. I wanna know! I understand that the net isn’t crawling with this info, I checked, but how about a few chefs or cooks helping us/me out? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/11 "2001-11-03T06:25:35Z")
Maybe because they look more decorative that way. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/12 "2001-11-03T06:57:39Z")
Jeez, another food question! Well yes, I eat the shrimp (prawns are a matter of 4-6 per pound) tail and all. The bit of exoskeleton makes for a supreme nugget of calcium rich munchification. Chefs leave it that way so as to avoid ripping the little sea-floor-cockroach-beasties all to pieces. If you’re worried about your precious tux, do as **Shibb** says. Otherwise, get all of the crunchy bits in your maw and nevermind the stuck-twixt-your-molars-afters. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasty-prawns/91232/13 "2001-11-05T16:36:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Green Bean \* > \*\*Maybe because they look more decorative that way. \*\* Ding ding ding! Absolutely correct: presentation. Same reason we served lobster in the shell.