Garlic Ganbak (Skillet Spot Prawns with Garlic and Spanish Paprika)

This garlicky, smoky, spicy dish is a winner. Freshly harvested head-on Santa Barbara spot prawns, with sweet, lobsterlike meat, are simply seasoned with aromatics and pimentón and quickly roasted in a hot oven, allowing the succulent seafood to shine. Serve the prawns with crusty sourdough bread for sopping up the juices that form in the bottom of the skillet.

Frequently asked questions

What are Santa Barbara spot prawns?

When chef Dominique Crisp opened his first restaurant in Pasadena, California, he did it with the intention of running spot prawns, especially from Santa Barbara, on his menu as much as he possibly could. “I love the flavor, freshness, and lore involved with them,” Crisp explains. “They’re very rare."

Despite its name, the elusive spot prawn, which glimmers translucently under an orange-reddish shell, is actually shrimp. Sweet and briny, with meat as firm and succulent as lobster, these prized crustaceans can be found up and down the North American West Coast. But due to the warm waters around the Santa Barbara Channel, they grow to massive sizes there, averaging six to eight inches (and up to 10 at times), almost double the length of those found in Washington or Oregon.

Part of their appeal is that they’re hard to get. Spot prawns are possibly the most expensive fishery on the West Coast. The very few permits allowed in Santa Barbara can go for over a million dollars each, according to Billy Gerard, who helms Santa Barbara Stone Crab Company and supplies area restaurants with spot prawns.

It’s not an easy feat to catch these creatures. Gerard has crews out on 45-foot-long boats, dropping traps anywhere from 600 to 1,500 feet underwater. Regulations limit the number of traps that can be used. While he knows where they’re likely to be gathering, it’s not always a given.

“There are studies, but they don’t know exactly how and where they migrate,” says Gerard. “It’s a guessing game, and they’re very hard to see to begin with because of the depth in which they live.”

Crisp, who is now the executive chef at The Lonely Oyster in Los Angeles, likes to join Gerard on the docks when his team hauls in the spot prawns. They’re pulled out of holding tanks and then put directly into trucks with tanks to keep them alive. The chef calls spot prawns “unicorns because of the massive horn on their heads” and says people could get cut by them if they reached into the tanks.

With all these factors, it makes sense why Santa Barbara spot prawns fetch such a high price tag. Gerard has seen them go for as low as $20 a pound on the pier, to as high as $80 at retail stores. The months of June to September are your best bet for getting Santa Barbara spot prawns for a reasonable price.

These shellfish have a short life span once they’re out of live tanks. Whenever Crisp gets a shipment, he’ll serve them in a variety of ways as quickly as he can while they’re still fresh and delicious. He has offered them up raw, confited in oil, and in fisherman stews. One of his favorite ways to serve them is grilled in a sizzling skillet with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, lemon, and spicy Spanish paprika. It’s his rendition of a shrimp scampi, with the light and herbaceous oil permeating the meat without overpowering the “true essence of the spot prawn,” he says.

As hard as it is to normally procure spot prawns, it was especially trying during the pandemic. “Inflation and staffing, even on a boat, there are all these things that fall apart, when we’re in the middle of a situation like this, that have nothing to do with just getting beautiful spot prawns out of the ocean,” Crisp says. Gerard, too, had to be nimble, constantly reevaluating how to distribute his seafood as restaurants had to close or adjust their menus between being short-staffed or having customers cancel their reservations.

Crisp’s relationships with fishermen are the backbone of his cooking. Going out to the docks and seeing Gerard’s team hard at work brings him closer to the seafood he cooks.

“That is the true connection between yourself and reaching into the ocean, and getting something so fresh, and understanding that it takes hard work, it takes skill,” Crisp says. “It’s a special and beautiful experience.” — Jean Trinh

Why we seek out fresh spot prawns

Much like lobster, spot prawns are far superior when cooked from fresh. Fresh shrimp or prawn meat should be white or off-white in color and firm in texture. If the meat feels soft or mushy, it most likely means the prawn is no longer alive and should be discarded prior to cooking.

Where to get Santa Barbara spot prawns shipped nationwide

Prized for their sweet flavor and firm texture, spot prawns are exclusive to the Pacific Ocean. They can be harvested February through October.

Santa Barbara Stone Crab Company, while known for its stone crab claws, also ships spot prawns fresh in the warmer months at market price.

Santa Barbara Fish Market ships fresh spot prawns from February to October (when available), all priced between $15 and $38 per pound.