Fried shrimp

Fried shrimp is a seafood dish consisting of shrimp that is battered or breaded and then deep-fried or pan-fried. It is served in various cuisines around the world. The dish can be prepared using different coatings, such as seasoned flour, cornmeal, panko, or tempura batter.

Popcorn shrimp is the name of several small shrimp fritters. Cajun popcorn is a similar dish of peeled crayfish-tail fritters rich of spices, where shrimps could also be used as a substitute for crayfish.

Crunchy varieties of coconut shrimp dishes are prepared with peeled shrimps dipped in batter, coated with grated coconut, and deep-fried.

There are two popular deep-fried prawn dishes in Japan, ebi tempura and ebi furai. The difference is that tempura is battered, never breaded, while breaded deep-fries are called furais. Prawn cookings in Japan typically employ a straightening technique, by making several incisions on its belly side, then bend the prawn backwards to form straight prawns which they consider more appealing.

Ebi tempura (海老天ぷら) or ebiten is tempura of prawn, with a light fluffy coat. It is served as a main dish, with soy-based dipping sauce or salt. It can also be made into other dishes such as:

Ebi furai (海老フライ or エビフライ) is a breaded and deep-fried prawn dish, of darker and crunchy texture.

Traditionally kuruma ebi was used, but many stores have started using cheaper black tiger shrimp. It is thought that ebi furai was created around 1900 along with similar dishes such as tonkatsu in the Western food restaurants of Tokyo.

Ebi furai is a popular ingredient of Japanese bento, and ebi furai bentō (海老フライ弁当 or エビフライ弁当) is a common menu item in bentō products.