Prawn, Shrimp or Scampi?

I quote from the website http://www.theepicentre.com/tip/shrimp.html

A shrimp is a shrimp; a prawn is, well, a shrimp.

Well... the definition doesn't really serve any purpose in drawing a clear distinction does it?

But that being said, the truth is that they both refer to the same entity, but that the term is used differently by different parts of the Earth: prawn for local Singaporeans, Shrimps for US citizens.

But one thing to note is that for Singapore, prawns refer to the bigger prawns, such as tiger prawns and those that you see in prawn noodles. Shrimp on the other hand, is used to imply the smaller types of prawn, those that are dried and used in soup stock, or in frying vegetables, or what in Hokkien is called haebi.

So if an American were to come to Singapore, and ask for shrimp... I wonder if he'll be surprised to see that our shrimp in the local hawker centres would be dried shrimp and that would be what is to be served him.

Funny though, how some local fast food restaurants that originate from USA use the terms that are colloquial there, as seen in Long John Silver's value meals as shown below:

There are, coincidentally, some places in Singapore that are from USA that use Singaporean terminology for their food. Fish and Co for example, call their dish "Peri Peri Prawns", and Manhattan Fish Market call their food "Flame prawns" and not "flame shrimp". I guess that the terminology changes with the location of the outlet. =)