Quote:
Originally Posted by montsnmags
See, I think this is a regional thing. For us it's mostly all the same. "Shrimps" are just small prawns ("shrimp" is actually not much used, regardless of that old Paul Hogan ad. We generally specify species). It's sort of the way what we call "lobster" is totally different to what those in...is it northeast?...US call lobster. I understand those different traits you're talking about, but we wouldn't call the pincered variety "prawns". In fact, I'm not even sure we have the pincered variety. They sound similar to what are called, I think, langosteen in the UK.
Cheers,
Marc
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There is a common trend all over the world to use 'shrimp' to mean small ones and 'prawns' to mean the bigger jobs. Same in the US, Malaysia, France, Australia, etc. A common name rather than specie designation, though in fact, they are actually different. They begin to differ higher up in the biological taxonomy than do 'lobsters.' The shrimp/prawn begin to split at the 'order,' while the lobsters split at the 'family' stage. (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
Langoustines are what Americans call cray fish, with the one served in the UK being a marine rather than fresh water variety so popular in New Orleans Creole cooking. They have large pincers and look like mini-New England lobster. The slipper lobsters and spiny lobsters (the kind you folks get, without claws) are several steps removed, but like the shrimp/prawn situation, taste just about the same as the New England lobster.
The prawns that you get down under actually have pincers on three pair of their legs, while shrimp have them only on two pair. The other legs of the shrimps don't have any pincers at all. As for your not noticing them, the pincers aren't like lobster claws at all. They are little bitty things that you wouldn't notice when cleaning the prawns, unless you went looking for them with a magnifying glass.
(No danger to scuba divers... except for the Killer Shrimp that hunt in packs, dragging down unwitting swimmers. Related to Killer Sheep in behavior...
)
Stitchawl