Shrimp Scampi Day

Shrimp Scampi Day
© Klaus-Peter Katzbach / pixabay.com / 2007 / CC0 1.0

What “Shrimp Scampi” means depends on where you are in the world — but once you get past that, and hear what the dish is that’s on offer, we’re sure you’ll be all over it, whatever the name should be.

Any English-speaker from outside North America will just be completely baffled by the term “Shrimp Scampi.”

Essentially, it’s a restaurant-marketing term meaning large shrimp (aka prawns) that has sautéed briefly in butter and / or oil with a bit of garlic and either white wine or white vermouth.

Some say it’s traditionally served over linguine, but given that traditionally there’s never been a traditional dish called “Shrimp Scampi”, that’s a little tricky to puzzle out.

Nevertheless, in some parts of America now, when people see Shrimp Scampi on a menu, they will expect “jumbo” shrimp (aka prawns) sautéed with garlic served on pasta. Some even say “scampi-style shrimp”, as though “scampi” is suddenly a preparation method, describing both the preparation method and the presentation on pasta. Italians will balk at some of the variations that are served with Parmesan cheese — for an Italian, putting cheese on seafood is “vietato” — verbotten.

Some versions even make shrimp scampi by swapping in chicken instead– cubes of boneless, skinless chicken breast halves — and call it “chicken scampi.”

Scampi has evolved to mean “large shrimp” in North America. It doesn’t to English speakers elsewhere.

With that being said, it’s a good day to enjoy large shrimp / prawns sautéed up with garlic — heck what day isn’t, if you’re a shrimp lover?

And it’s a good day to clear up some confusion over what’s a shrimp, what’s a scampi, what’s a prawn — CooksInfo.com’s got it all sorted. See the entry on “Shrimp.”

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