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Botan Ebi (Botan Shrimp) Sushi

Botan Shrimp

Shrimp & Mantis Shrimp

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Decapoda, Pandalidae, genus Pandalus

Besides the botan shrimp, which has the standard Japanese name unique to Japan, there are three species including the coonstripe shrimp and the spot prawn. Known as a luxury ingredient, it is a large shrimp about 15 to 25 centimeters long, characterized by having mottled markings on its body.

Botan shrimp refers to three species of shrimp of the genus Pandalus in the family Pandalidae: the botan shrimp of the standard Japanese name (hereafter the true botan shrimp), which lives on the Pacific side of Japan; the coonstripe shrimp, which lives in the Sea of Japan; and the spot prawn (American botan shrimp), which lives in the North Pacific. Botan shrimp itself is scarce and expensive, but the distribution volume of the true botan shrimp in particular is very small, and most of what is distributed as botan shrimp is the coonstripe shrimp or the spot prawn. In the past, distantly related species such as the Argentine red shrimp were sometimes served as botan shrimp at conveyor-belt sushi and the like (now called aka-ebi), but currently only the above three species are permitted by the Consumer Affairs Agency to be labeled as "botan shrimp." The main production areas of the true botan shrimp are Chiba, Ibaraki, and Suruga Bay, while the coonstripe shrimp is more abundant in Hokkaido than in Toyama and is also imported from Russia and elsewhere. The peak season for domestic ones is autumn to spring for both, and since the spot prawn is mainly frozen ones from the United States and Canada, it is available throughout the year. Botan shrimp sushi is basically made raw as nigiri. Fresh ones have a strong redness, and the flesh is soft with a springy elasticity, with a sticky richness from the mucous amino acids and a strong sweetness. Also, shrimp are divided into the suborder Pleocyemata, which lay their eggs on their own abdomen, and the suborder Dendrobranchiata, which scatter their eggs into the sea; the botan shrimp and sweet shrimp belong to the former, and during the spawning season ones carrying eggs on their abdomen are caught. Nigiri with eggs placed on top of a botan shrimp caught during the spawning season is popular, and the shrimp miso in the head part is also flavorful.

How to tell apart the three great botan shrimp

The leading theories for the origin of the botan shrimp's name are that the mottled markings scattered over its body resemble peony (botan) petals, and that its body color is red like a peony. As the origin suggests, the true botan shrimp is vermilion when alive, characterized by its transparent internal organs and the red mottled markings on its body. Meanwhile, the coonstripe shrimp is not as red as the true botan shrimp when alive, with conspicuous white markings on the carapace and horizontal stripes on the abdomen. The spot prawn is characterized by the white streaks on its carapace. Among these three, the true botan shrimp is the most expensive, but the others are also luxury shrimp and superb in taste.

Top: True botan shrimp Bottom: Coonstripe shrimp

Where is a shrimp's heart?

As you can tell when you prepare a shrimp, the body part of the shrimp has no heart, of course, nor anything like internal organs.
In fact, a shrimp has not only its heart but also its stomach and liver not in the body part, but next to the brain around behind the eyes. Because what it eats stays in the head, the head of a living transparent shrimp can sometimes become the same color as the food it has eaten.
The complex umami of shrimp miso comes from the fact that it is packed not only with the brain but also the internal organs.