Re-running this old poll, which originally ran on this site in mid-October 2001. The data for the results were accidentally lost, but this was the summary:

Most of us have had both octopus and squid. But a fair amount have had neither. Not surprisingly, more people have had squid/calamari only as opposed to octopus only.

Wonder if that's still true?

I don't know, maybe it's just me. But I think it's kind of treason to eat one of the animals (or their relatives) that we claim to love so much...
And not trying to be rude to the dear little cephalopods, but I'd never consider eating something that looks and feels like they do.

The Italians eat squid deep-fried, the Greeks eat octopus in red wine sauce and the Japanese eat both on sushi. (Octopus boiled and squid raw :shock: ) All good stuff. Who else?

I would happily carry my squidding gear 5 miles to get a feed of fresh squid almost any day of the week.

As for octo's tho, I am fairly happy to settle down with a few in a chinese stirfry occasionally.

Squid and cuttlefish are the best for eating in my books.

They all are wonderous creatures that interest me in all so many ways.

Tony.

Calamari deep fried rings are very yummy. I feel sad for the poor squids.

The Chinese make very tasty Cuttlefish Balls (chopped cuttlefish rolled into a ball and fried).

That being said.... see my 9 February reply to the How do you catch an octopus? thread.

Tani

I was so unimpressed eating tasteless rubber rings that I never did again & eating an octopus was always treason though ammonites are okay but a little gritty & you can stir your tea with a decent size belemnite.

Keef

Not a chance. These creatures are far too wonderful to eat, (he says more than somewhat hypocritically after having eaten squid at his local Chinese restaurant recently. Not that the menu said "Stir fried noodles in sweet and sour sauce with Loligo opalescens balls"). Belemnites (esp. Hibolites) make good toothpicks after eating such stuff, I tend to find.

Attached:- I do have this unpleasant item in a can my grim sister retrieved from a holiday in Portugal 10 years ago and I now keep in my kitchen cupboard as a keep sake. Gah!

"Stir fried noodles in sweet and sour sauce with Loligo opalescens balls"


Wow... those must be small.

Squid tentacles and rings soaked overnight in milk (refridgerated, obviously), then breaded, dropped into a deep fryer for approximately 45 seconds at 350 degrees F. Serve immediately with a red curry dipping sauce or marinara. Any longer than 45 seconds and the flesh will get to the consistancy of a tire, any less and it's like chewing a rubber band. If you must, cook it right! Don't let the ceph die in vain! :squid:

:yuck:


But then I don't like seafood.........give me brussels spouts any day :lol:

J

I had calamari once...was these rings in a marinara sauce.....about 25 years ago at a dingy resturant. It wasn't anything to write home about, no taste (even the marinara had no flavor, was like water), very chewy...like rubber bands. Since that was my first try at it I figured that's how it was supposed to be and decided it wasn't worth trying again. Maybe it wasn't prepared right?? Saw in the store today a seafood mix in the frozen section, Squid and Octopus...wondered if i should have a go at preparing it myself?? I love seafood, and will eat just about anything under the ocean.....raw or cooked.

You know, if giant squid weren't ammoniacal, their arms would make calamari rings as big as bicycle tires!

OOOoooo, would be a challenge chewing on those Squidman. Maybe I should practice on gnawing the spare inner tubes in the garage.

I had a calamari salad once. Not rubbery at all, crispy and GOOD. I guess the reason it was so good was because I was visiting a posh restaurant in Boston. Anyway, there were live jellyfish in a tank right next to the entrance!

Postscript: What really made the calamari salad good was that it was not on my tab!

The Chinese will eat anything, I know since I am one. We eat cuttles, squid, octos, jellies, sea anemoes, some tube worms and sturgeons. No, we don't eat fresh fried dog turd and not all poeple are ok to all sorts of food, it's just some extremenist. :lol:

i went to a chinese resturant and they had everything from octopus,squid cuttlfish,sea cucumber,moon jellfish, sea urchin, to red sea anemones

I tried to eat squid once. It was sitting on my plate, I just stared at it. I raised it up to my mouth and was just about to take a bite from it when a picture of an octo came into my head. A little tear came from it's eye. I put the squid down in disgust. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat calamari! :octopus:

I havent eaten either, but my hubby tried calimari in Cyprus..............he thought it was onion rings :lol:

Iv had both many times. It used to be my fathers favorite seafood.
I like it. It taste like chewy chicken. If it's rubbery, it means it wasn't cooked right...and many restaurants and places sell octopus and squid thats rubbery...

grilled octopus with ouzo (kind of like sambuca) is my favorite but of all the places I had it nothing can come close to the way they make it in Greece but even there you have to find the place that still buys them local not frozen from Egypt
Calamari is good
For the first time in Crete last year I had stuffed cuttlefish this thing was amazing
I used to cach my own octopus beat it on a rock for 1/2 an hour ( thats how you get it nice and soft) and take it home to my aunt to cook it for me when I was a kid durring summer vacations in Greece but since I started keeping them as pets 3 years ago I cant get myself to kill them but I still eat them

i love eating squid, octo is ok, but cuttlefish is my favorite. ive only had cuttlefish a few times because i think theyre too smart to be harvested in huge quantities, but catching a few is good. squid, however are probably the best to harvest because of the sheer amount of them.

I have had squid, octo and cuttlefish. The best was bbqed cuttle in Thailand. The worst was also in Thailand. Squid Jerky :yuck: :yuck: My traveling partner loved it, and nearly made me puke on the 2 hour taxi ride back just by opening the bag every 10 minutes for another handful. Second worst thing I have ever had in my mouth, the worst being pure rose oil (don't even ask me to remember that one).

Speaking of which, those of you that are going to make it to the Monterey TONMOcon will be delighted, or digusted, to know that one of my chef friends has offered to give us a menu at his restaurant of nothing but squid. That particular restaurant sells more squid than any other in the US. They have 12 different preperations on the menu and sell something like 6 million pounds a year!!! :shock: :shock:

In Nice our family ordered pizza Nicoise. You eat what the locals eat,right? When it came the pizza was covered with little tiny whole baby octopi, no bigger than quarters, including the diameter of the tentacle spread. I think every one of us felt slightly ill, they were so darned cute, but manfully, or womanfully, as the case may be, we pressed on and ate the pizza, rubbery whole baby octopi and all. I WILL NEVER AGAIN EAT OCTOPUS! I feel so guilty! Sob, I'm a cannibal!

Hmmmmm i wonder if steve has any sample worthy archi flesh come this summer....... i might be willing to try it if theres something to wash it down with... (and something nearby if it boomerangs)

of course customs might have issues with bringing animal parts into the country.....

In Penticton, BC, I happened to notice as I was driving by that a Greek restaurant there has registered the domain name http://www.eatsquid.com

:yuck: the brussels are still winning by a long shot!

j

o good grief, why do so many people get such a charge out of eating things that taste like chicken?! I never was too big on chicken myself, except for a short buffalo-wing phase. But that was only cuz of the sauce.
Anyway, I've been vegan for a couple of years, now.

Oh, and I must say, as fascinated as I am with all of these creatures, and as devoted as I am not only to the promotion of veganism but even, if lacking that, a kosher diet, I don't tend to be viscerally appalled by the thought of people eating them... with one exception: those who talk of eating cuttlefish! That one definitely trips the "how-could-you?!!" trigger in my limbic system. After seeing all their delightful social behaviors, including with humans, the beauty, the grace, the cuteness, the sense of thought processes going on--right up there with pigs and dogs and cats, I say... just like looking at a picture of an Asian market with a cage full of cats. Can't hate on the people cuz I know they're not being malicious & I don't actually equate the animals with people, but sheesh, y'know?

Hi friends!

I'm from Italy and I don't understand anything about acquarium...
BUT in my Town ( southern part of Italy, called Bari) we eat raw octopus and cuttlefish and peoples like them very much.

http://www.laterradipuglia.it/ing/puglia.htm
http://www.viamichelin.it/viamichelin/ita/dyn/controller/mapPerformPage?strAddress=&strCP=70100&strLocation=bari&strCountry=612&image2.x=0&image2.y=0


For this reason I'm thinking about a new kind of breeding: octopus and/or cuttlefish.

Surfing on the WWW i reached this site today and I would like to ask you some help about this business idea I got.

There are some other exeprinces of cuttlefishes breeding ?
Do you think is it possible?

We pay about 30 US$/Kg for fresh octopus!!! My be a good business I think.

I do not mean any harm...

Thank you.

hm...octo breeding, how big are the octos or cuttle or squid do you eat?

The most delicious octo (and in great demand) are about 0.5 kg each.
The most delicious cuttlefish are about 0.1 kg ( very little).


Could you help me in understanding something more about breeding?

Do you think it's better I open another thread?

My addiction is rubbing off on coworkers! We sent to lunch yesterday at a Chinese buffet and I'm sitting across from one of my coworkers and notice this tentacled arm sticking out from under her chicken. I asked what is that on your plate? She replied octopus, after I took it and sat back down, I hid it under my chicken so you wouldn't get upset! Turns out they had a whole pan of baby octopuses on the buffet. Where do these come from? Do they come in live? Anyway, became quite a discussion at our luncheon! And she never ate it.

Baby octos are yummy!~ :grin:

i was just in spain and ate cuttlefish or shark every night and had octopus a few times. cuttlefish are my favorite pets, and my favorite food. it was better because they usually dont have it in the US.

Are any of the commonly kept pet species of octos tasty or even edible? I eat a lot of sushi, and tako is one of my favorites.

Hi all, have been away but now I'm back! I have had both, being a former squid (navy sailor) I have been all over the pacific, and have had no problem eating anything that comes from the sea. I've always been in the aquarium hobby, but after I began keeping octopus, Harvey, Henry, and Ella, I feel uncomfortable eating our ceph rulers. Any other animal is fair game, except crows. They are just disgusting, kinda taste like chicken that's been marinating in dumpster water.

I :heart: PULPO AN PULPO :heart:'S ME!!!

cant beat a good tapas with a mountain of good quality pulpo

with a plate of calamari thrown in of'course...did you ever doubt!!! :razz:

castor wrote
Any other animal is fair game, except crows.

god you musta been hungry!!! ha haaa!!

I had a friend who once picked up a dead pigeon (fresh) after it had killed itself flying into his office window, brought it in, cleaned it, cooked it in the microwave and ate it for lunch. I think he was trying to prove a point about pigeons not being as diseased as everyone says... but the point got somewhat overshadowed by the way he went about it. Don't think he actually suffered any ill after-effects either, although, come to think of it, I haven't heard from him in a while... :roll:

:lol: :lol:

wood pidgeon is meant to be really good, very gamey, yummy!!!

hope it was one of them an not feral!!! ha haa!!

I once opened up a hatch in a wall to find loads of pidgeons and babies nesting on a foot deep layer of dead pidgeons with maggots all over the place, yeah it made my belly rumble but for the wrong reasons!! uurrrggghhhhh!!!

Your mate is nuts!!! :lol:

Way back when I was a young lad, I watched my brother and his friend shoot about 3 dozen pigeons over a neighbor's corn field. They neighbor wanted the pigeons gone, and my brother and his friend wanted some target practice. They paid me to run into the field and prop the dead up in some semblance of life. Swarms of pigeons would just keep swarming in and the "decoys" just kept adding up.

Afterward they cleaned the birds and battered and fried the breasts. I have to admit they were delicious. We called them Pigeon McNuggets. I haven't had them since, though.

Sorry to ask a second time, but --- are any commonly kept pet octos edible?

god you musta been hungry!!! ha haaa!!

Dear God YES! We were in the back country of Maine hunting for bear, and got nothing. But the crows seem to be plentiful, and the guide I was with, very good friend of mine, had crow before. By the way, I am not sure how a bear can smell humans, the stench that comes off a bear is insane! We finally gave up about two days later and got drunk. My friend's name is Dave, his handle is Lizzard, and it is very fitting on him!

In answer to your earlier post, O. vulgaris is harvested commercially as food and is also kept by our octo keepers. Inky is a recent example of this species, but I believe that it's around the Mediterranean Sea where most are harvested as food. As far as I can tell, we're likely to enounter vulgaris from the Caribbean.

Nancy

I had calamari in Mexican restaurant in Cabo San Lucas. It had a flavor like tacos; the texture was juicy and delightful to chew. Delicious.

That was before I found this site and learned so much about your pets. I don't think it could eat it now. :roll:

I think that to eat a ceph shows your deepest care and love for the creature! How much closer to an animal can you get then by eating it?

it is often joked about on fish keeping forums that when your pet fish, be it an Oscar, Piranha, or whatever gets too big you can simply eat it!!!

Myself personally, I have eaten wild Hypostomus, Hoplosternum and even Aquedens but apparently, fish grown in the home aquarium taste pretty bad due to the unnatural diet and lack of exercise... wonder if same applies to cephs?

I had a Pot Noodle once.

Never again.

calamari pot noodle? ;)

when i was four years old i ate one of my fathers fancy goldfish. and bte i love squid, calamar, and octopus, i have never eatin cuttle but want to. jellyfish i thout tasted bad. my only vice is that i refuse to eat any animal that i currently own. so if i get a cuttle then i wont be eating one

My grandpa was an old Italian Catholic who used to make spaghetti sauce with the squid rings in it which I ate as a child. He said it was both an Italian and a Catholic tradition. I recall I liked his sauce with the squid in it, but don't think I'd be so brave and daring as to try it again in my adulthood.

...That sounds tasty, wish I could have some...

Man, I havn't had squid in ages...but I did eat a single slice of tako sushi yesterday..

Of all the werid things I've eaten, jellyfish was the weridest thing I've ever had. (If you didn't count raw sturgeon...)

My twin sister ate a slug when we were 2. I've eaten raw clams and got paralytic shellfish poisoning, so no more raw sea creatures for me. I don't eat squid, cuttlefish or octopus - too cute for me to eat (same reason I don't eat anything furry... just my own opinion, I don't force my views on anyone else). Although I won't let anyone eat cephalopods in my presence at a restaurant. I used to live in Hawaii with two local guys as housemates and every chance they got, they ate Tako Poke in front of me... they were like the older brothers I never wanted...

Octopus seem to like eating octopus... If they are so smart, how can millions of octos be wrong.

i had tako today yummy

In Hawaii recently, I saw a little food shop that was "Tako's Tacos" and had a picture of an octo on its sign. I didn't have time to stop driving and take a pic and see if they sold octopus tacos, though...

look i ate squid but the way i figure it is there are plenty more squids in the world and us humans keep the balence i mean what if there were to many squids they would over populate then they would becom extinct. i would rather eat one squid then have the entire population die because we refuse to eat squid or octopi and etc. Dont you agree?!

That somehow reminds me of Cliff Claven's famous hypothesis - if drinking kills brain cells, the weaker ones will be preyed upon preferentially. Thus as predation makes the buffalo herd collectively stronger, such is the effect of alcohol on the brain.

Dan

I mean really I do love squids I mean ever since I went to see that giant squid body I have loved squids I stood there for 5 hours just looking at that mangled body I went back there and I did the exact same thing.

Good heavens. I'm a genius ! :beer: