What to Expect When You’re Expecting Camarones Embarazados

With their cheeky name and rich adobo, these skewered “pregnant shrimp” rule the beaches of Puerto Vallarta and are perfect for grilling at home.

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico — You’d have to try to miss the camarones embarazados on a walk along the beaches of Banderas Bay. Makeshift grills encased in bricks or rocks, exhaling the last puffs of smoke from early-morning cooking sessions, dot the shores. Soaked in a rich, burnished-red adobo sauce, head-on shrimp are threaded onto extra-long skewers, grilled until crisp and stuck in sand mounds, tempting passers-by. Ask locals and they’ll tell you camarones embarazados have been part of the culture of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, “desde siempre” — since forever. Juan Manuel Gómez Encarnación, a renowned local historian, recalled kids selling them at the beach as early as the 1940s. Camarones embarazados translates to pregnant shrimp in Spanish, but the crustaceans aren’t carrying any eggs. The name is a play on words: “En vara” means on a stick, and “asado” means roasted. When you put it all together, “en vara asado” sounds a lot like “embarazado.” The dish, with its memorable, funny name and its flavorful adobo, is making its way to indoor dining.