Yes, We Have No Camarones

I do speak Spanish, but there were a lot of words that I didn't know before coming here - either because they weren't taught in my Spanish classes or because they are uniquely Peruvian - that I've since picked up. One of the first of these words was "veda", which means "ban." This is because there is a ban on fishing for one of the region's greatest delicacies, river shrimp or camarones. So, most of the restaurants one visits have all these shrimp dishes on the menu, and when you attempt to order them, you are informed that camarones are in veda, and can they bring you some langostinos instead? Langostinos, which could be translated as "little lobsters", are ocean prawns of the sort that one can buy (frozen, two bags for the price of one) in any Safeway in Canada. Only fresh, and big and juicy.

The sordid scandal here is that there is illegal fishing of camarones, in spite of the depleted stocks, and some restaurants continue to serve them. On top of this, if one visits the fish market, one will be approached by shifty-eyed old ladies whispering, "buscas camarones, caserita?" I keep expecting them to offer me a letter W, and it's all I can do not to broadcast, "why, YES, I'd love some camarones, especially since they're so scarce these days!" I was actually with a couple of ladies when they bought some, and we followed the woman (with our security guard in embarrassed tow) down several twisty turnings through the labyrinth of the market, to an unmarked corrugated iron door, through which they passed and from which they emerged some time later with ominous-looking black plastic bags.

All this for illegally-obtained river shrimp which are, in my blasphemous opinion, kind of marshy-tasting and not as good as plain old legal prawns.