camarones y gambas

Question

I learned from Latin American sources that shrimp are camarones, and now I am studying with some software that uses Castillian and it calls them gambas.

Is camarónes Latin American and gambas Castillian?

Or are they 100% synonymous?

Or are they two similar but different creatures?

¡Gracias por ayudarme!

I just removed the accent on "camarones" - AntMexico, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 1

Gambas are prawns and they are not the same creature as a shrimp.

Thank you. I was confused about prawns and shrimp, too. I think in the Southern US we only have shrimp. - Lrtward, Jan 3, 2011

But we also have crawdads! - Sabor, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 2

Camarones son estos en el sur de España, es decir por Andalucía

En Madrid se llaman quisquillas

They are much smaller than the gamba and have a slightly redish colour.

Esto es lo que conozco de Florida. - Lrtward, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 3

In Ecuador, shrimp are camarones and prawns are langustinos.

I don't know about the precise translation, but gambas and langostinos are not quite the same. See below. - lazarus1907, Jan 3, 2011

The things they call langustinos here have never been in the Med, but neither have most prawns. - lorenzo9, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 4

gambas = prawns.

And camarónes = these little shrimp I had in Spain last summer that were quite delicious ;D

Welcome to the forum, :) - 00494d19, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 5

Una gamba es alargada y blanca, normalmente

Answer 6

Adding an accent on camarones is just wrong

an accent - lorenzo9, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 7

Just to confuse things, something called Gambas al Ajillo are served in bars and restaurants all over Madrid. They are little shrimps cooked in garlic and olive oil and are fabulous on pieces of bread.

They look like this:

Answer 8

gamba.

1. f. Crustáceo semejante al langostino, pero algo menor, y sin los surcos que tiene aquel en el caparazón a uno y otro lado de la quilla mocha. Habita en el Mediterráneo y es comestible.

langostino

1. m. Crustáceo decápodo marino, del suborden de los Macruros, de doce a catorce centímetros de largo, patas pequeñas, bordes de las mandíbulas fibrosos, cuerpo comprimido, cola muy prolongada, carapacho poco consistente y de color grisáceo, que cambia en rosa subido por la cocción; su carne es muy apreciada.

camarón

2. m. Crustáceo decápodo, macruro, de tres a cuatro centímetros de largo, parecido a una gamba diminuta, de color pardusco. Es comestible y se conoce también con los nombres de quisquilla y esquila.

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Answer 9

I think this is unique in Spain, even smaller, they are eaten with the skin and all:

camarones muy pequeños

they are used to make "tortillitas de camarones"

Tortillitas:

eeewww! Y con los ojos también! - Lrtward, Jan 3, 2011

Sí. - lazarus1907, Jan 3, 2011

Answer 10

Thank you so much! I did an image search for gambas y camarónes but it was not helpful. Apparently people who take photos do not know the difference, either

Well, I did two searches. One for gambas and the other for camarónes. - Lrtward, Jan 3, 2011

no accent leslie, this confusion must be due to the different usage, in Spain gamba is much bigger than camarón and the word camarón is not even used in Madrid, make a searcjh for quisquillas;) - 00494d19, Jan 3, 2011