Shrimp(s) and prawns

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:21 AM -0400 3/11/09, Victor wrote:
>When it comes to Chinese restaurants, there might be a difference
>between those run by Hong Kong expats and those from other parts of
>China (and Taiwan). I've seen all three possibilities on menus--all
>shrimp, all prawn and some shrimp/some prawn, the latter with a variety
>of explanations for the distinction. In one particularly odd case, the
>menu *item* referred to shrimp, but the preparation and ingredient
>description used "prawns" (as in, "delicately sauteed large prawns").
>Another had it in reverse. Yet another Chinese menu had a vocabulary
>note describing the difference (although it appeared to have
>distinguished mostly between freshwater and saltwater species with no
>taxonomic significance). Upscale Japanese restaurants are much more
>likely to watch the words more carefully, especially since there may be
>fine distinctions between some types of fish for which there may be only
>a single English equivalent (I wish I was just making up a
>snowclone--for example, different sizes of herring and sardine each have
>their own names, instead of commercial grades).
>
>There is an interesting twist in Dutch, apparently (not sure how
>linguistically interesting this will be, but, what the hell!). There is
>a distinction between "garnalen" and "garnaal", which Google interprets
>straight as the split between shrimp and prawns in one direction,
>although both pick up "shrimp", going the other way (and the latter gets
>a dual translation). I am not sure if it's really that simple, but a
>Dutch cooking magazine I picked up last year differentiated between at
>least 15 different kinds of shrimp/prawns (by size, color, texture and
>taste--and, oh, yeah!, taxonomy), compared to an American market
>distinction of... about 6, and most of those by point of origin (not
>including differentiation by size, which really is even less useful than
>POO

...which isn't as extreme a level of uselessness as being less useful than poo.

But on the topic of seafood lumpers vs. splitters:  there's also the
squid vs. cuttlefish distinction that I've never quite understood,
but shows up in English translations of menus whose original is
Spanish, Italian, or various Asian languages, so I assume it's a real
distinction that I just neutralize.  Different species? Different
sizes?  It all tastes good to me, so it's not like I *really* care,
but I am curious.

LH

>--apparently, the Dutch care about their shrimp as much as New York
>and California restaurateurs care about oysters).
>
>And, for good measure, one more twist. At open markets and herring
>stalls (more common than falafel trucks in urban US), you will also see
>deep-fried shrimp-looking objects simply referred to as "gamba". It's
>not simply a tribute to some Spanish or Portugese dish. In fact, it's
>not even shrimp or prawn, in the strict sense of the word. It's
>battered, deep-fried shrimp-shaped surimi-type product--basically ground
>and shaped processed pollack. (Did I set a record for most hyphenated
>modifiers in a row?)
>
>    VS-)
>
>Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>I, raised and still living east of the Hudson, disagree.  I see both
>>words on menus, and understand "prawns" as larger.  "Prawn"
>>particularly appears on menus of East Asian restaurants.  (They might
>>all be "shrimp" in the supermarket bags, regardless of count; I
>>haven't examined that aspect closely, preferring to have others cook for me.)
>>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org