2 hours ago, Bill W said:

My first experience with prawn was when I spent time in the UK back in '73.  Thinking of all the different things eaten around the world, it makes you wonder what made the first person to try them to take the chance that they were edible and wasn't poisonous and wouldn't kill them in the first place.  

2 hours ago, Bill W said:

The word 'prawn' didn't come into use until late Middle English, so weren't prawns eaten before then or didn't they have a word for them - ugh, we eat, don't care what... 

@Bill W

I like it that you asked, then answered your own question.

Prawns sparked a memory for me. June 1972, my first tour of duty in NATO, at CFB Lahr, West Germany. My second night there. Three of us went into town (Lahr) for a meal, to a restaurant and ordered what we thought was a large all dressed pizza. You guessed it, it was a prawn pizza. With a bloody big one on each slice, facing outwards, just staring at us. We laughed, we cried and yes, we played with our prawns. We ate the pizza, but not the prawns. Even the owner had a good laugh(after we paid the bill).

The reason I had forgotten about this one, is because of the events that took place shortly after. I was on leave and at the Munich Oktoberfest when Black September struck.

25 minutes ago, sandrewn said:

 

@Bill W

I like it that you asked, then answered your own question.

Prawns sparked a memory for me. June 1972, my first tour of duty in NATO, at CFB Lahr, West Germany. My second night there. Three of us went into town (Lahr) for a meal, to a restaurant and ordered what we thought was a large all dressed pizza. You guessed it, it was a prawn pizza. With a bloody big one on each slice, facing outwards, just staring at us. We laughed, we cried and yes, we played with our prawns. We ate the pizza, but not the prawns. Even the owner had a good laugh(after we paid the bill).

The reason I had forgotten about this one, is because of the events that took place shortly after. I was on leave and at the Munich Oktoberfest when Black September struck.

 

I don't know about others, but I certainly remember Black September.  It had me second guessing if I wanted to make a trip to the UK the following year, but I eventually decided to go anyway.  After all, only the good die young, so I didn't have to worry. 

The only time I have ever heard shrimp called prawns was in Seattle back in the seventies. My brother was stationed nearby so I flew out to ride back with him and we explored Seattle. There in a park was a food truck full of Limeies selling good fish & chips.

I had never had fish & chips, so I tried them. Yum! He was also selling prawns and chips, but they weren’t moving as well as you would think. It seems us dumb ‘Mericans didn’t know what they were.

1 hour ago, JamesSavik said:

The only time I have ever heard shrimp called prawns was in Seattle back in the seventies. My brother was stationed nearby so I flew out to ride back with him and we explored Seattle. There in a park was a food truck full of Limeies selling good fish & chips.

I had never had fish & chips, so I tried them. Yum! He was also selling prawns and chips, but they weren’t moving as well as you would think. It seems us dumb ‘Mericans didn’t know what they were.

Prawns and shrimp are similar, but they're not the same thing.  Prawns are generally larger than shrimp and often taste sweeter.  And even though both have ten legs, prawns have pinchers on three pairs of legs, where shrimp only have pinchers on one pair of legs.