Posh prawn cocktail. The name acknowledges the flavour’s fundamental unposhness while attempting to transcend it. It’s prawn cocktail, but make it food hall.
The elevation works, mostly.
The tang is present but refined. Less harsh than budget versions, more considered in its balance. The sweetness is restrained. The overall profile is recognisably prawn cocktail but somehow more grown-up.
Hand-cooked texture provides the premium platform. Thick crisps with substance, irregular shapes with character. This isn’t prawn cocktail on cheap thin carriers. It’s prawn cocktail that deserves its vehicle.
The posh problem
Can prawn cocktail ever be posh? The flavour is inherently artificial, inherently retro, inherently the opposite of premium food values. Calling it posh is either ironic or delusional.
Co-op seems to be in on the joke. The “posh” is knowing, winking at the absurdity while genuinely making better prawn cocktail crisps.
Self-aware elevation. Probably the only way to do this.
