We went out for a meal last week and for the first time, probably in decades, I decided to order scampi.
As I have always understood it 'scampi' were langoustine tails, including the shelly tail and a large piece of langoustine meat attached, egged, breadcrumbed and deep fried. I can remember in the past, holding the tail to eat the langoustine flesh.
What I reeceived looked like chicken nuggets, a cylinder with rounded ends, with a filling with a texture that suggested that it was made of minced seafood of some sort.
I commented on this to DH who does quite often have scampi, and he said what I had was what was normally served and DD confirmed it later.
I remained unconvinced and started googling and came across this article www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2357200/Ever-wondered-whats-REALLY-scampi-Youll-wish-hadnt-asked-.html
which confirmed everything I had known and now suspected, that real scampi has a shelly tail with meat attached and that scampi, as served nowadays, is indeed the fishy equivalent of a chicken nugget. It is langoustine bits bulked out with everything from cat fish to pea flour and will often have very little scampi in it.
I will not be ordering scampi and chips again. I will stick to fish and chips.
