Damjan and I spent Easter in Edinburgh. On our last day in Scotland, we had lunch at a Chinese buffet.
‘Hey,’ I nudged Damjan. ‘Look at that man. He’s doing something weird with his prawn crackers.’
Damjan looked over. ‘What?’
‘He’s loading up each cracker with food then eating it! He’s using the cracker like a scoop.’
‘Huh. Weird,’ Damjan agreed.
Ten minutes later, I gestured excitedy again. ‘Hey, that lady on the other table’s doing the prawn cracker thing!’
Then I noticed a man sitting on the table next to us also loading up his prawn cracker.
‘What’s going on? I’ve never seen anything like it before,’ I hissed to Damjan. ‘Is it a British thing? Or a Scottish thing?’
When I got back to work and asked some native Brits at work, they too said that they hadn’t come across this behaviour.
‘It’s got to be Scottish,’ they concluded, disclaiming all responsibility for the quirks of the north.
‘Maybe they’re harking back to Yorkshire pudding, ‘ I suggested.
‘Maybe,’ my friends agreed. ‘Or maybe it’s something to do with Vietnamese lettuce cups.’
If anyone has a better theory, I would gratefully receive it.
Inspired by nachos?;)
Yes! I think that’s it! I was trying very hard to think of what was similar to this cracker behaviour. It felt so familiar but I couldn’t remember what it could be.
Oh, I always wanted to go to Edinburgh! Do you have any photos of your trip?
I am surprise that you’ve never seen people eating cracker like that before because if it comes with other food, I like to do that every now and then too. In particular, I like it with rice and a bit of satay sauce.
Hi misscipher,
I have lots of pictures and I hope I can put some up over the weekend. Edinburg is really picturesque. I’m getting pretty far behind in my picture posting. I have some beauties from Mauritius when I went in February!
Hi Thara,
I’m afraid not, I haven’t seen it before. I only found out recently, though, that Thai prawn crackers are different to Chinese prawn crackers. The Thai ones a thicker and heavier. I like their stronger prawny taste. Maybe Thai crackers are more suited to holding solids? The Chinese ones get soggy quite quickly.
Interesting observation. The cracker that I normally eat at home in Thailand is made from fish, not prawn. The one that we get in Australia is definitely a lot more bubbly (full of air bubble) than the one I have in Thailand. Also, we like to eat the cracker with “dip” (i.e. all sort of pastes).
…I’ve seen that done many times (Australia) but aye it’s a thing here in Edinburgh ;o)