A fishy festival: Garrucha celebrates its prized red prawns

GARRUCHA celebrated one of its most treasured delicacies at the weekend, when it hosted the sixth Garrucha Red Prawn Gastronomic Festival, turning the town into a meeting point for food lovers and setting the benchmark for Mediterranean cuisine.

Garrucha red prawns: a prized Mediterranean delicacy

Known for their bright red shells and deliciously tender meat, red prawns don’t feel out of place on any Spanish restaurant menu, from beach front chiringuitos to fancy five-star restaurants. In Garrucha, red prawns are especially popular, as the fishing town has a long history of producing some of the finest seafood along the coast.

Local restaurants serve delicious tapas all weekend long

For three days, from Friday, November 6, to Sunday, November 8, Garrucha demonstrated what exactly makes this little crustacean so special. Fourteen local restaurants were invited to take part. Each set up a stall at the festival grounds and offered some of their most popular dishes for just €3.50 per tapas, or €4.00 for tapas served with red prawns.

Red prawns weren’t the only locally sourced ingredient on display. Ten producers were also in attendance, showcasing everything from premium seawater gin to home-grown wines.

More than 1,000 kilos served

Residents and visitors alike delighted in stopping by each stall to sample what was on offer. Previous editions have drawn upwards of 25,000 people, and organisers estimate similar numbers this year. With live-music performed across the whole weekend, and plenty of fun activities to keep the children entertained, it felt like a three-day dinner party the entire town was invited to.

By far the highlight of the festival was Sunday’s traditional public tasting. Approximately 300 kilograms of red prawns were served throughout the day, taking the total amount of prawns served across the weekend to 1,000 kilos.

Garrucha donates leftover prawns to elderly residents

Despite such an enormous amount of seafood served, there was still somehow plenty leftover. The remaining prawns didn’t go to waste. As part of the “Garrucha shares the good things” campaign, Garrucha donated left-over prawns to the Hermanitas de los Ancianos Desamparados nursing home in Huercal-Overa, sharing the gastronomic celebration with its elderly residents.

The festival once again highlighted Garrucha’s reputation as one of Almeria’s leading seafood destinations, bringing together local restaurants, producers and visitors to celebrate the town’s culinary heritage. With its famous red prawns at the heart of the festivities, the event proved that Garrucha’s red prawn is not only a prized ingredient but an important part of the towns identity.