Don't be a prawn...

I used to have really bad allergy reaction to most shellfish, dust, heat and cold too for that matter. My sinus will swell up, causing runny nose, watery eyes, constant sneezing which will eventually lead to a full asthma attack. I sometimes get swollen lips or fingers, what ever body parts that touch the shellfish.

Then about 20 years ago, when I first started my attempt to lose weight (not a lifestyle change back then because I was practically starving myself!) I stopped taking red meat and shrimp/prawn. I can't remember why I chose to stop consuming prawn, most prolly I thought as I am giving up all the good stuffs I may as well stay off that too.

 

And I started having less and less allergy attack. No more constant runny nose (that makes me look like a drug addict Mom used to say), less dependency on anti-histamine which is among the caused of my teenage weight gain.

The crash diet regime went to belly up after I got myself hitched. Fatty red meat's back to being my favorite,the fattier the better. Oh, for the glory of good food and my love of cooking, the weight was piling up too. But I stayed off prawn. Funny thing is, I just stop eating the flesh, but continued taking the shell and head, again don't ask me why. After all, the shells are supposed to be good for you, aren't those anti-cholesterol supplements made of these? And I used to really enjoy shelling them crustaceans using fork and spoons for other. And I still take crabs, lobsters though.

Fast forward to mid 2011, I started my change of lifestyle, by December I've lost quite a bit, and that's when I attended a wedding where special jumbo shrimps were air-flown by the host. He insisted that I try it, saying that these prawns are special, will not cause allergy reaction, not high in cholesterol and it will be a sin for me not to have at least one. Try I did, and another and surprise surprise, no allergy reaction. I didn't think much of it, don't really care to really start eating prawn again. Though I do wonder sometimes if there's any truth to the claims made by that friend of mine to get me to eat them prawn.

As I make more seafood and shellfish as part of my daily diet, I started thinking, why not eat prawns again, they are a good source of protein, full of nutrients, requires minimal cooking and most importantly looks like I am not allergic to them any more.

So yesterday I bought 750g of shrimps. Which leads to the next 3 recipes I am going to post. 

I think I am going to like making prawn a big part of my diet. And yes, I still have ready stock of Xyzal & Papase, just in case *wink*