Sóller has a thing about prawns and has had for at least some two thousand years; the Romans were particularly partial to them, and they come in two principal varieties - red and white. Coming to the present day, "Aristeus antennatus" is known - no, famed - across Mallorca, but it is more commonly known and famed as the "gamba de Sóller". As a consequence of this fame, the residents of the island will have been hotfooting it towards the Tramuntana yesterday and will continue to do so today, thereby swelling revenue coffers by paying their tunnel tolls in pursuit of the prized prawn of Sóller.
In keeping with many other towns on the island which have cottoned on to the potential offered by gastronomy events and fairs, Sóller is now in on the act. The curiosity is perhaps that it has taken them so long to do so. The first ever Sóller prawn fair is taking place over this weekend, and ten leading chefs (not including Jamie Oliver) are preparing their prawn master dishes in the marquee at the Sóller municipal market.
One could say that it has taken as long as Roman times for there to be a fair, but in much more recent times it would appear that, regardless of its deliciousness, the prawn was not the target of co-ordinated fishing effort. Hence, its presence on restaurant tables was once as haphazard as the fishing. It wasn't until 1949 that prawn fishing was properly and officially organised in the Balearics as a whole. Since then the prawn catch has fluctuated, a peak having been reached at the turn of the 1990s when some 350 tonnes per annum were being netted. The number of fishing boats dedicated to the catch has been systematically reduced along with the size of the catch, a factor that contributes to the price of prawns. Depending on the size of the actual prawn, it can be anything from 25 or so euros per kilo to over 80 euros.
Price alone might indicate the quality of the prawn, but there has to be more. Why is it that Jamie Oliver - to name one of innumerable others - can go into a rapture about it? What, if anything, is unique about the Sóller prawn? The simple answer is that it isn't unique. It is the same species. "Aristeus antennatus" is hauled from many a boat on to many a pier in many a Mediterranean port. The answer, therefore, is not so simple.
There are two principal areas for prawn fishing around Mallorca. One is the north-west coast around Sóller, the other is around the island of Cabrera off the south coast. Studies of the prawn populations in these two areas have established that while that of Cabrera is stable throughout the year, the population to be found off the Tramuntana coast isn't. There is a discernible shift in prawn-fishing emphasis in later summer and so a concentration on the north-western sea, and this is because of an abundance of female adult prawns as well as young prawns. This abundance is apparently the result of water conditions and of nutrients. The currents off the north-west are such that they favour adult females in summer and the young in autumn and also winter. The water conditions also influence the type of sediment and the food chain.
The studies are, at present, far from complete. There is an understanding regarding the movement of prawns but it hasn't fully extended to factors such as what prawns eat (pretty much anything, including mud and sometimes themselves), which probably holds the clue as to why the Sóller prawns are as tasty as they are.
So the secret as to the success of the Sóller prawn remains a bit of a mystery for now. Not that those tucking into a lasagna de gambas de Sóller will be concerning themselves overly much with marine-life food chains and hydrography.
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