Recalling when scampi arrived in the region

IAN Grierson is back with more musings on the food of his childhood.

This week he recalls the arrival in Dumfriesshire of the gastronomical delight that was scampi, old school style.

Ian said: “Throughout my childhood, my family liked to eat out now and then but there needed to be an excuse for such lack of thrift. “Celebrating special occasions was the answer though birthdays and the like were too infrequent to satisfy our need for more than occasional culinary expeditions. As a result a whole range of new anniversaries needed to be invented that included such things such as when we moved house (we moved quite often), pets birthdays, etc.

“In those times past in Annan invariably we went to a place called “The Canteen”. This place in the mid 20th century was a multifunctional oasis in the heart of our small town, consisting of a cinema (of sorts), a restaurant, a bar, a large billiards hall and an immaculate outdoor bowling green.

“The restaurant was a tad on the shabby side in keeping with the menu that was in no way extensive and entirely predictable. I cannot remember the choice being other than fish and chips or steak and kidney pie with boiled potatoes.

“Then one special day, the choice suddenly doubled to include gammon with tinned pineapple and, amazingly, deep-fried coated scampi. Scampi was a completely new name to us. As a young lad I didn’t care much what they were called only that they were sweet, juicy and delicious – especially with a big dollop of salad cream. Sliced, local tomato and sauté potatoes rounded off the dish - fine dining had come to Dumfriesshire.”

He remembers that the scampi of those very early times were shelled, breadcrumbed and cooked, adding: “Dublin Bay prawns and marvellous they were too!

“Our town of Annan had some fishing boats and a seafood-processing factory. The locals had no use for the little lobsters the boats picked up until someone heard that elsewhere in the country the tail meat was taken out of “Dublin Bay prawns”, coated and packaged for frying in restaurants as scampi. As a result my little town and “The Canteen” became part of the scampi craze.”

Fast forward to the 1970s and scampi was on almost every pub menu in the land, with tartar sauce and often served in a basket.

“Beneath the crisp scampi coating was macerated fish remnants – nasty!” said Ian. “Dublin Bay prawns had become recognised as a delicacy, consequently they became too expensive for these exquisite shellfish to remain part of our cherished scampi dinner of yesteryear so instead there was plenty of macerated fish blobs masquerading as deep fried scampi.”

As for today’s scampi, Ian says they are ‘plump, regular prawns coated in breadcrumbs and a modicum of Dublin Bay thrown in’.

“Often these are called “whole tailed scampi” to distinguish them from a pressed fish concoction that makes up the cheapest so-called scampi,” he said. “If your scampi tastes like compressed fish sticks then it probably is just that!”