This was originally supposed to read “Octopus, Shrimp Avocado Salad with Kewpie-Wasabi Dressing,” but the octopus part did not happen. After reading a recent string of octopus posts on Umamimart including Tokyo JUNKtion: Corpse Candy, ¡Viva España!, Umamiventure #26: San Pedro Fish Market (LA), ReCPY: Best Octopus(sy) in NYC and Raw Octopus from Tsukiji Market I executed a complete impulse buy at the local Mexican seafood market near my house. I was especially determined to recreate the salad that Yamahomo makes in his Octopus(sy) post.

The octopus I bought was a one-pounder and I was really confident that I could handle it despite the fact that I had never prepared an octopus in my life. Boy, was I in for a surprise…

When I got home, I reread Yamahomo’s post and it cleared up my memory (shabby), and I realized this was going to be much harder than I expected. I proceeded to Youtube some videos on how to prepare octopus and almost barfed a little several times (live octopus preparation in particular).

The more and more I became better acquainted with these on-screen octopi, the more I feared looking into my refrigerator to pull my little guy out of his plastic bag (even though he was long dead).

I eventually did get him out of the bag, convincing myself that life is worth living for its risks and challenges.

Even so, I was thoroughly disgusted and thought about “freezing him for later” twice.

I couldn’t bear the thought of turning its head “inside out like a sock” as one online source suggested, so I decided I’d just dump him whole, into the pot with 1 cup of sake, water, half a lemon, about an inch of ginger and a wine bottle cork.

I was really trying to suspend my disgust at this point, and quickly closed the pot with its lid.

Half an hour and a really pungently stinky (if the ocean had an armpit it would probably smell like this) apartment later, I uncovered the lid and was semi-pleasantly surprised. PINK!

Pink is one of the less intimidating colors on the tonal-spectrum, so I chilled out a bit.

After cooling him down to room temperature in the liquid, I “fished” him out and placed him on my cutting board. His legs curled outward over and around his head.

One-by-one, I hacked each leg off. In fear of finding myself face-to-face with this creature, I kept the head parallel to the board. When all eight legs were chopped off, I asked my husband to throw the head out.

But to feed my terror, he stood it up and took photos of it.

TRAUMA.

At this point I had lost my appetite so thoroughly (and quite possibly forever for octopus) that I decided he will NOT be making it into tonight’s salad.

I think it’s the baggy eyes that made my stomach turn.

To my credit, my husband ate two legs and said they were quite good. I am just so disgusted at this point with octopus that I’ve placed the remaining legs in a tupperware – and I am sure that I will not be snacking on those.

And that’s the prelude to the actual recipe for this week’s post, Shrimp Avocado Salad with Kewpie-Wasabi Dressing.

Salad Ingredients:
2 avocados chopped into bite-sized pieces
10 shrimp, steamed and chopped into bite-sized pieces

Dressing:
2 tbsp kewpie mayo
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp salad oil
1 tsp wasabi
a pinch of sugar

This salad is heavily inspired by Yamahomo’s salad, but I substituted wasabi for mustard and skipped the basil, cucumber and tomato, for a wafu touch.

The key here is to pick ripe but slightly firm avocados. I find that mexican supermarkets are excellent for this.

Additionally, buy shrimps with heads whenever possible. Anything with a head still on it is going to taste a “whole” lot better. Deveining the shrimp is a bit of a pain, but when you eat the final product, you’ll appreciate the effort that pays off in both flavor and presentation.

Steam shrimp whenever possible. It will retain flavor better than boiling. I steamed my shrimp after deveining and but before removing the heads.

I took this salad to a potluck dinner and I was pleased to see it was a hit. I was also very pleased that I made the decision not to add the octopus in there.

I know there is good food in Los Angeles and I’m trying to be more open to new things. That being said, I don’t like driving and I don’t particularly like Santa Monica, so I normally don’t travel to the west side of the city to do anything, beyond what I have to for work. On top of that, I’m not what you’d call a “beach” person, so generally I steer clear of Venice, Malibu and Santa Monica on the weekends, particularly the street that connects them all, Ocean Ave. B

ut, in an effort to rid myself of the sophomoric, cliched ennui associated with moving from New York to Los Angeles, I’m trying to embrace this city as my new home and make it my culinary bitch in my second year living here. Last Sunday, I pulled it together, faced the drive and went to the recently-hyped Blue Plate Oysterette, sister restaurant to the casual, healthy diner-style restaurant Blue Plate, located next to the ocean on Ocean Avenue.

Blue Plate Oysterette is one of the smaller restaurants I’ve been to in Los Angeles, reminding me of the boutique NYC restaurants like Pearl Oyster Bar or Prune.

With a few tables lining the street for outdoor seating, a handful of stools at the bar, the restaurant is primarily one long banquet of tables. The wait staff has a familial feeling, again, similar to what I experience in the casual, neighborhood restaurants in New York, and everyone is authentically nice.

The menu is a diner menu for pescatarians, with a heavy emphasis on local fish and oysters served in a variety of styles including ceviche, Ximemez, and Italian-inspired Crudo. The daily fish specials and selection of oysters are written on the chalk board that hangs above the bar. There were five types of oysters, two East Coast and three West Coast, although they were out of bunch of things by the time we sat down. After much deliberation I decided on a half dozen Kumamotos.

We ordered drinks, starting with St. King sparkling water. It tasted like any other sparking water I’ve had, I though the bottle was WAY cool.

Each table is set with a condiment tray, which includes Heinz malt vinegar worcestershire sauce (yes, that’s how you spell it, Google that shit). Given my love for condiments I was super impressed that each table has its own private tray.

The fishless food items that make it on the menu are few, including a hanger steak, Blue Plate hamburger,  AND “The Big Dog,” which I will be ordering the next time I’m there. “The Big Dog” is a 1/2 lb Kobe beef hot dog, topped with sauerkraut and homemade pickles and looks AMAZING. I immediately regretted not ordering it because right after I placed my order, the dog was delivered to the table next to me. However, my jealously waned once my oysters arrived.

The small pearl like oysters contain a mild, salty and perfect taste, one of my favorites in the world. Served with lemon, cocktail sauce and a shallot,champagne vinaigrette, the Kumamotos were delicious on their own and didn’t need any garnish.

Once the Kumamotos were gone I sank into a momentary, post-oyster depression, and decided to order a Hefeweizen to drown my sorrows. Blue Plate only serves wine and beer, carrying products from small yield vineyards and micro-brewers.

Emotional catastrophe was averted by the booze and the arrival of the Oysters Rockefeller. They might be the best baked-cheesey-bacony-oysters I’ve ever had, probably for two reasons. One, they didn’t use oysters the size of my hand, which many restaurants do because they are cheaper. And two, the cheese was mixed lightly with a butter pesto sauce that, surprisingly, didn’t over power the dish.

We then split a few more smalls plates including the mac and cheese, fries and spinach. Even though we ordered the mac and cheese sans lobster, it was just the taste I wanted, crispy on top and relentlessly creamy throughout, every piece of macaroni was smothered in awesomeness. The fries were totally boring, but they provided me with an opportunity to turn to my condiment platter and drown them in vinegar.

The spinach was a nice compliment to these two heavy dishes. It was freshly steamed and garnished with a bit of oil and crispy garlic slivers.

For our main course, we shared the Crudo of the day which was fresh ahi tuna mixed with olive oil, sea salt and lemon and served with chives, avocado, and crostini. It looked beautiful, however, the olive oil overpowered the taste of the fresh fish and basically made it seem like a healthy, open face tuna sandwich with avocado.

Even though I was stuffed, I ordered the hot fudge sundae, garnished with dried cherries and malt balls. As good as it looked, the sundae didn’t live up to my expectations. There weren’t enough malt balls and they used too many cherries, which overwhelmed the taste of the ice cream and hot fudge.

At this point, I was moving slowly and having difficultly thinking about the meal and forming complete sentences. I’m not sure if I grunted or said “Thank you,” when the waitress brought the check. In retrospect, I would have skipped the crudo and ordered another dozen or so oysters. As I got up to leave the Oysterette, I noticed a TV above the door. I imagine it’s a good sign that this was the first time I noticed it all night, and neither the other patrons or the waitstaff were paying any attention to it. I would like to think that the food was so good no one noticed and the waitstaff was too busy to care. However, I did get an urge to point up to the sky and say, “Ha! I told you so,” to anyone who cared (no one) when I realized what was on the TV.

It was a surf video.

*Photos by Thomas Young

**Sarah works in film production in sunny Los Angeles. After being away in Europe for five months, she is pretty much obsessed with burritos, sushi and Kogi at The Alibi Room in Culver City.

It’s funny how when you mention Japan and food in the same sentence, there only seems to be two options. You can take the fabulous gourmet-cheering, sushi-adoring, heavenly-graced and experimenting Michelin-guided way. Or, you can choose the back alley into the world of eyeball-abusing, crazed up, disgustingly weird nastiness that freak the shit out of most people, make them turn away and return their breakfast to nature.

But that’s Japan– nothing is entirely black or white, right or wrong, delicious or disgusting– and the limits for what you might encounter as the hottest new snack in your local cornershop are a bit wider than in downtown Copenhagen.

Being the typical Scandinavian and spending most of the year in windy, rainy darkness, I have a natural craving for sweets and chocolates to fill me with the inner sunshine I never get from the outside. Therefore, moving to Tokyo was quite a shock. I expected to shower myself in quirky flavoured caramels, go bonkers in exquisite luxury chocolate and explore large underground candy caverns beneath Shibuya. I knew Tokyo was off the hook in the consumer category and my hopes were high.

Instead all I saw on the convenience store shelves were Snickers and Kit Kats (with a wide selection of weird flavours, but as our Japanese Junk expert Yoko already pointed out in several reviews: they all taste like soap, not chocolate). Compared to a normal 7/11 in Copenhagen where half the store consists of shelves with candy, these shelves were stuffed too– but with chemical diet drinks, fake grainless bread, fluffy tasteless cake and loads of alcohol.

So no Candy Wonderland. But what do the Japanese chew on then when they need a little break from their busy meat-eating schedule? Well… more meat, it seems. The shops are busting with a wide assortment of meat snacks; finely sliced beef stems, chili infused pork bites, a whole dried octopus vacuum wrapped in clear plastic (great gift for your mum), a bag of little pink squid arms, long dried sausages and so on.

I was not surprised though. The Japanese really love their meat. My Swedish friend who lived in Tokyo had given up on being a vegetarian. He would simply not get a clear answer at restaurants when he asked whether the dish had meat in it. Things like bouillon, meat broth, chicken skin, fish, etc. are not considered meat in the same sense as Europeans do. So he caved in and gave it up. His stomach exploded for the next 3 weeks, but eventually he understood the Japanese lesson; Eat our meat or leave the island.

The other day I found these three bags in my kitchen cabinet, sent to me by Japanese friends with bad senses of humour. Yoko and I discussed these treats in depth. Whether they are too old or too weird to be eaten, I will let you readers judge the food by its wrapping.

Yotchan Stick

Anders: Yotchan is a snack brand selling little bags with sliced meats. It says ”katto” which could be a pun/double meaning for ”meat that has been cut” or Katto which derives from katsu which means winning in Japanese. So, meat snacks for winners! This Yotchan guy confuses me though. He sells beef but wears an octopus’ butt on his head. The bag contains 6 slices of dried steak from a cow that probably died in the 1970’s, instantly frozen and preserved in big tubes deep beneath Harajuku Station.

Yoko: Yeah, I don’t know why it features “Katto” so big, like the idea of squid being cut is a huge feature. Oh well, I suppose it’s simple pleasures for the main consumers of this product who are mostly likely drunk on lots of shochu and stopping into the nearest Lawson or 7-11 to top off the evening with some barf-inducing snacks. Next to the giant word “Katto” is some copy that says “A snack for adults” and “Sour UP!” I think these strips are marinated in vinegar and the sour quotient is a big part of winning the hearts of potential customers. The Japanese have a talent for the English language and often use “noun UP!” for copy that offers a benefit. For example, lots of make-up boasts the copy “Image UP!” meaning your style will improve. I’m sold!

I like how Yotchan is wearing a squid cap while wearing a suit! His hat looks like a penis, but at least it looks like he’s using protection.

Red Yotchan

Anders: This contains some weird, red meat bricks and I can’t seem to discover what kind of animal that gave up its body. It looks like Yotchan is pulling something… an octopus arm? A cow tongue? A horse penis? (well, they ARE long and red if you wonder)

Yoko: Oh my god! It’s the cap again, but this time, it’s more like a Smurf hat and he’s got a matching white body suit. My Japanese husband enlightens me on the fact that this type is the “Original Yotchan” and that all Yotchan products are (supposedly) made out of squid. (Anders, it would have been nice if this was horse penis). I do have a soft spot for this guy because we share the same nickname – one of my ex-coworkers back in Japan dubbed me Yotchan the first week I was there.

Sudako-san Taro

Anders: This bag depicts a happy octopus with the cutest eyes that just escaped a deep sea urn relic, now on its way into the world, full of dreams and hopes. Too bad that danger lurks in the shape of you when you rip open this bag and eat up the poor thing. I’m not sure what the little red man is doing here. Warning the octopus of the impending horror? Pointing the consumer to the food source?

Yoko: Just to reassure you that those cute eyes don’t fool you into thinking that this creature is actually real, they include the black fine print on the bottom of the package that asserts “This is a simulated image.” The clay pot in the background baffles me – is it covering the octopus in vinegar? I also like how there’s a personified octopus on the left side of the main octopus in overalls. It seems like he’s pointing to the actual product that peaks through the circular transparent window of the package.

Anders: Phew, I’m so glad I didn’t have to eat these. But on a wild guess they would probably taste dry, salty, kinda slimey and very old. Not what I consider a fine couch companion when watching my new Daria DVD box-set.

The candy situation is improving in Japan however. As the Western influence washes over the island kingdom with its healthy gifts of XXL sized junkfood servings, Starbucks quality coffee and of course, Lady Gaga, the selection of Western but also Japanese produced candy is growing. Here’s to more adventures in the Japanese sugar section.

*Anders is based in Copenhagen where he draws kids books and refuses to cook unless he has guests.

Photos by Alda Ly, Moet Hashimoto, and myself.

Sara wrote a post two years ago about the San Pedro Fish Market, and I’ve fantasized about visiting since then. All that sunny, surfside seafood looked like paradise. So that was the obvious choice for Umamiventure #26, since I was coming into town. Also, with all the devastating seafood drama happening in New Orleans (great essay in Washington Post yesterday), and the rest of the coast, I felt that we needed to support the industry. SUPPORT SHELLFISH!

I crossed my fingers for flawless weather.

And a glorious day it was– not a cloud in the sky! I was unaware of how far San Pedro actually is from the city– it was closer to Long Beach and about a 45 minute drive for everyone. Thanks to everyone for making the trek out! It was a day of non-stop laughter, World Cup madness (England vs. US), pitchers of Coors Light, and mountains of seafood on trays. Loved every moment of this trip! SO MUCH FUN.

SARA
The shrimp platter: this thing is an endless pit of shrimp. It’s so delicious, but virtually impossible to finish it. I always feel bad throwing out so much shrimp at the end, especially since it’s got about two pounds of butter on it.

KAYOKO
Yeah, that tray of shrimp is NO JOKE. I didn’t think that butter was necessary. It was really greasy!

SARA
The catfish: it was a little crazy actually having to pick out my own catfish.  You throw it in a plastic bag, then pay for it and wait a few minutes, while they clean it. Then, they give the fish back to you and you drop it off to get deep fried. After about thirty minutes, it’s ready to go!

KAYOKO
Ordered “large mixed cocteles” aka ceviche. It was a behemoth cup of shrimp, octopus, squid, clams, pico de gallo, avocado, all swimming in a cold tomato soup and topped with two fresh oysters. I loved this, except it was literally bigger than Sara’s head.

SARA
The ceviche is good, but it’s a little too huge for my taste. I’m used to it in small doses and it makes me wonder how fresh the fish is when it comes in the super size quantity.

SARA
The oysters are good too, but eat them quickly cause they’re not served on ice and get warm fast. Plus, I do end up missing the horseradish and cocktail sauce, since it doesn’t come with either.

TOMO
Oysters are usually my forte but these ones were very intimidating. They were just too huge!

TOMO
I really thought the $40 crab was a bit much but once I cracked that sucker open, the sweet tender meat was well worth every penny!

KAYOKO
The crab was definitely my favorite out of everything.

JERKY
San Pedro Fish Market was a rad experience but it wouldn’t have been as fun without the Umamimart gang. I loved sitting outside on a gorgeous sunny Saturday, watching the World Cup on giant 55″ TVs, eating all the fried calamari, octopus ceviche, garlic bread dipped in octopus ceviche, and zucchini sticks I wanted. Not to mention the pitchers of beer and the fact that, while there was a good crowd, it wasn’t super crowded and the wait was never very long. Even some of the guys at one of the stands gave us “samples” of little octopus babies marinated in a diablo sauce.

KAYOKO
Jerkey got these succulent, juicy prawns wrapped with jalepeños in bacon. Totally delicious. But the peppers were so hot I couldn’t stop crying.

SARA
The great thing about going to San Pedro in a big group is that people end up getting stuff I never even knew they had there. I never knew the fried zucchini and corn existed there!

MOET
I loved the San Pedro Fish Market! The huge portions were so American!!

KAYOKO
I definitely agree with Sara and Jerkey– you MUST come here with a big group! That way you can try more things and it’s just a great place to meet for a picnic and enjoy the Southern California sunshine.

TOMO
It was a beautiful day and a great way to watch World Cup!

PETER
If you want a Burger don’t go to the Fish Market. It will only let you down.

KAYOKO
The actual market was HUGE. Fresh fish market, fish cleaning areas, grill and fry stations, pre-cooked crabs and lobsters, sides etc.

SOOKIE!

Hey gang! Thanks for coming out!

SAN PEDRO FISH MARKET
1190 Nagoya Way, Berth 78
Ports O’ Call Village
San Pedro, CA
T: 310.832.4253

*Umamiventures are organized monthly, traveling far and wide to find good, cheap grub off the beaten path.

**Stay updated on all future trips via Twitter or the Facebook Fan page.

***Taking suggestions now for July’s Umamiventure in the Bay Area. Gimme a holler if there’s anywhere you’ve been dying to visit!

Past Umamiventures include:
1.) Ocean Jewel Restaurant – Flushing, NYC; June 2007
2.) Red Hook Ball Fields - NYC; June 2007
3.) Taste of Jackson Heights – NYC; October, 2007
4.) Sripraphai Restaurant – Woodside, NYC; November 2007
5.) WINTERMARKET – South St. Seaport; December 2007
6.) Jackson Diner- Jackson Heights, NYC; January 2008
7.) Pacificana – Sunset Park, NYC; February 2008
8.) Puerto Alegre – The Mission, SF; March 2008
9.) Dinosaur BBQ – Harlem, NYC; April 2008
10.) Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden – Astoria, NYC; May 2008
11.) Brooklyn Banh Mi Crawl – Sunset Park, NYC; August 2008
12.) Sheapshead Bay Lobster Crawl – NYC; September 2008
13.) Flushing Food Circuit – NYC; October 2008
14.) Strong Beer Month – SF; March 2009
15.) Loisaida Throwback Crawl – NYC; April 2009
16.) Harley Farms Goat Dairy – Pescadero, CA; June 2009
17.) Tomales Bay Oyster Farm – Marshall, CA; August 2009
18.) Din Tai Fung – LA; September 2009
19.) Din Tai Fung – Tokyo; September 2009
20.) Schroeder’s Oktoberfest – SF; October 2009
21.) Fish Taco Crawl – San Diego; November 2009
22.) St. George Spirits & Hangar One Vodka -  Alameda; January 2010
22.5) Everett & Jones – OAK; January 2010
23.) Sammy’s Roumanian Steakhouse – NYC; February 2010
24.) Guerilla Ramen Night – SF; April 2010
25.) Knife Sharpening Workshop at Hida Tool & Hardware – Berkeley, May 2010

Summer seems to be a fickle thing here in muggy London. Not sunny enough for a picnic but warm enough for some chilled beer so we headed off to Belgo Noord for some moules, frites et bieres. Just north of Camden Town, the restaurant itself has an industrial feel but it’s cool, clean and light.

When Belgo first opened its doors in London (Belgo Centraal in Covent Garden) over 10 years ago, it was a small culinary revolution. What used to be an arid landscape of over-boiled vegetables and bland meat was instantly transformed by some continental goodness. It was quick, affordable and very tasty. And the array of fruit beers and schnapps was a revelation.

My favourite is this:

Floris Framboise or Belgian raspberry fruit beer! So like juice, so easy to drink.

There was a lobster-fest going on but I had a craving for some moules. I normally go for mussels steamed with white wine, garlic and parsley (marinière) or lobster bisque, but this time I was in an adventurous mood and ordered a kilo pot of mussels steamed in a Thai green curry broth. It beat everything else hands down. Fragrant, with just the right balance of salt, spice and lime, it was piquant and hit the spot. And it came with a bowl of thick fries and mayonnaise.

A kilo is a lot of mussels for a girl but we almost licked the bowl clean leaving only a few lonely mussels swimming in the green curry.

Then we strolled up trendy Primrose Hill with its select shops and mouthwatering patisseries and walked all around Regents Park heading towards its famous rose garden (Queen Mary’s Garden). Although we were too full for dessert, we were content with smelling a big white rose named Ice Cream. Perfect!

BELGO NOORD
72 Chalk Farm Road
Chalk Farm
London, UK
T: 020.7267.0718

*Sakura is mixed Sri Lankan/Japanese, lives in London and blogs about books at chasing bawa. Her column Slightly Peckish will post every other Tuesday.

I’ve been dying to visit the San Pedro Fish Market since Sara wrote about it a few years back. It’s the perfect summertime Umamiventure! Although it’s always summer in LA, isn’t it? Sigh.

Since I’ll be in LA this week, let’s all get together and gorge on fresh oysters and crab and shrimp and drink pitchers of Coors Light! YAH! I feel like we need to support seafood right now given the oil spill mayhem in NOLA. So devastating!

Next Saturday, 6/12 at noon, how about that? Does that work for everyone? Please bring all friends, lovers and fighters. And a wad of cash, I hear it can get pricey. Although there will be many of us, so as long as we all chip in, it shouldn’t be so bad. As usual, RSVP here in the comments below, the FB invite, or Twatter me.

I have not been to LA since last September, so I can’t wait to see everyone! Looking forward to eating unpeeled shrimp off of a tray with lots of fresh lemons!

San Pedro Fish Market
1190 Nagoya Way, Berth 78
Ports O’ Call Village
San Pedro, CA
T: 310.832.4253

Since Japan is surrounded by ocean, it’s very easy to get very fresh seafood in any part of the country. We Japanese love squid, octopus, and any kind of chewy seafood. Italy’s geography is similar, and they also love squid and octopi. Fried calamari, Italian restaurant’s signature appetizer is basically the same thing as squid tempura in Japan.

We tend to eat octopus as is (boiled, sliced, and eaten with soy or a vinegar-miso sauce), but the Italians and Greeks took extra steps with it and created tender grilled octopus and such.

When you want to buy good octopus, you don’t go to a fish monger. The ones in Chinatown especially are so badly frozen, you will definitely end up with octopus that is so tough and chewy, no matter how you try to tenderize it.

So where to get good octopus? At the Italian market. In my case, I am specifically talking about BuonItalia in Chelsea Market, NYC. You usually go there for cheese, pasta, olive oil, or, for me, almond flour for macarons. Everything is well priced, and the variety of flours (soy, wheat, chestnut, you name it, they have quite a wide kinds of flours) is fun for trying different recipes.

I recently heard that their flash frozen octopus are some of the best octopi you can get in NYC, so I went there, and sure enough, there were plenty of frozen octopi in the freezer. I assume Polipetti means octopus in Italian.

They are not the large ones like you see at Sushi Kuni.  I’ve made takoyaki (octopus balls) with this before. Cooking raw octopus is a bit of a challenge. Large octopus tends to get very tough when boiled, so there are quite a few wacky methods people use to tenderize it. Some of the craziest ones I’ve heard are:
- Beat it up with a daikon-like object like you hate the thing
- Put the it into the spin cycle of your washer (please double bag it in very thick ziploc bag to avoid octopus-flavored clothes).

I would love to try this, but don’t want to do it in my home. But since the octopi at Buon Italia are pretty small, there’s no need to go through this.

So what I usually do is to boil it for like 30 seconds in boiling water, and that’s it.  If you want to eat as sashimi, this is the best way to cook these small guys.

This time, I read around for how to cook octopus, and tried this method. (She did use the spin cycle, but I skipped that part).

1. Cooking liquid: 1 cup of white wine, 1 halved lemon, and thawed octopus in a pot, then put enough water to cover the whole thing.
2. Put in a wine cork (I didn’t know this, but it apparently it tenderizes stuff during the cooking, who knew?)
3. Cook for about 30 minutes until octopus is tender.
4. Keep the octopus in this liquid, set aside, and let it cool down.
5. Either grill it, or use however you like

I cut each leg and coated it with olive oil, garlic, salt, and lemon and put it in the broiler until it got a nice color. I could have eaten as is, but I wanted to fancy it up a bit, so I cut up a cucumber, tomato, and made dressing with vinegar, oil, garlic, basil, bit of sugar, mustard, and Kewpie mayo. Cut octopus into bite size, mix all of them together, and right before you are ready to serve, cut up avocado, and mix it into the salad.

It’s good and tender.

By the way, this was part of a gourmet dinner party I hosted over the weekend. Here are some of the other dishes I made:
Hamachi sashimi (torched just a bit), with mixture of cucumber, red pepper, yuzu pepper, vinegar, oil, herb on top.

Prosciutto de parma wrapped pineapple with balsamic vinegar reduction.

Duck breast with onion confit over sun dried tomato risotto, with roasted asparagus.

I’ve been trying too many weird recipes recently, but I can also make gourmet dinners as well.

Last week, my colleague had told me that he was going fishing on Saturday night. Come Monday morning, he gave me a cooler full of five squid. He kept them on ice, and they were so fresh! They didn’t smell fishy, which is a good sign for “fresh” seafood. I wanted to bring them home and do something crazy with them: use its ink for some pasta, or use the guts to make shiokara.

But I knew I had dinner plans that night, so I decided to make squid sashimi for lunch at work. Why not? Yeah, it’s the office kitchen, and the knife/cutting board situation is a complete nightmare, but unlike regular fish, you do not need to make a big scene when cutting up squid.

Tell me this isn’t totally wrong, this bulletin board in the background, filled with “State minimum wage” information bullcrap, which many of us don’t even make. And yes, I do have my usual bow tie on. No, I don’t have any meetings, but I just dress this way.

These were pretty messy, or I should say inky. When a squid is not so fresh, you can take the guts out easily, but when it’s super fresh, I learned that it is very difficult to pull it all out.

So you first have to cut off the squid in half, and yank out the guts, which was totally stuck to the meat. Make sure to get rid of the cartilage bone. By the way, cleaning fish over newspaper is one of the things I learned to do in Japan. All mothers, for some reason, put the cutting board, a thick layer of newspaper, and fish on newspapers for cleaning. At the end of the process, you just roll up the newspaper with all the guts, and throw it away. (Now that newspapers are totally recyclable, I don’t know what she uses, since she’s a Recycle Nazi– along with the rest of Japan).

This is totally Yamahomo style, a nice Rolex on one hand, and a crappy knife that doesn’t cut anything in the other.

So you cut the meat through the center, yank the guts out, take the bone out, then clean it. You also take the thin skin off (the dark reddish outer layer). I wasn’t sure what to do with the legs, eyes, and guts. It was too much to deal with the guts, so I sadly said goodbye to it, but I wanted to save the legs. I heard that the million of suction cups on the tentacles sometimes contain bacteria, so I lightly washed them and my coworker took them home to cook with.

So you cut up the legs up right below the eyes, then you “pop” the mouth out of the leg. This process is just like popping the biggest zit you ever had in your life. As gross as it looks, the satisfaction level is quite high.

And their eyes were very silver, a sign of freshness. I wondered if I could make nail polish out of their eyes, which was how sparkly they looked.

After you clean the outer layer, here is the nice sashimi grade squid.

We had so much left over, that I am now drying two squids up in my cubicle for tomorrow’s lunch. Yep, I repeat, I am DRYING UP SQUID IN MY OFFICE CUBICLE. Before drying, I generously salted them, and I made sure it’s mice proof by placing them on top of a two feet-tall vase that I keep, where there’s no way the motherfuckers can climb up to. It might collect some dust, but I live in that hellhole every day, so there’s no difference. I will bring my creme brulee torch tomorrow, and lightly burn them before eating.

Sometimes, our lunches are crazier than you can imagine. Our colleagues gave us looks of “OMG” or “WTF” or “I am jealous you are eating fresh squid.”  I politely ignored all of them. However my colleague “the Fisher” proudly kept telling everyone, “Yeah, I went to Rhode Island to fish for squid.”

Hotaru ika, aka firefly squid, is one of my absolute favorites to order at the sushi bar, if and when they have it. They are these darling little miniature squid that you can eat in one delicate bite. The “miso” (the guts, for lack of a better term) instantly bursts in your mouth, matched by the soft crunchiness of the tentacles. It really tastes like sea miso, it’s so delightful.

I’m reading on this awesome website, The Sea, that these are predominantly caught in Toyama, JPN, between March and May. They glow in the dark, hence the nickname “firefly”, or “sparkling enope squid”. The physiology of this particular squid is fascinating! Read this excerpt (taken from The Sea):

The squid is equipped with special light-producing organs called photophores. These photophores are found on many parts of the squid’s body and emit a deep blue light. Large photophores can be found on the tips of the tentacles as well as around the eyes. Thousands of tiny photophores can be found throughout the squid’s body, giving it the ability to emit light along its entire form. The lights can be flashed in unison or alternated in an endless number of animated patterns. These light shows are thought to serve several functions. They can be used to communicate with potential mates or rivals. They may also be used to disguise the squid’s shape and confuse predators, allowing it to escape. The firefly squid is the only member of the squid family that is believed to have color vision.

AWESOME, right??? My dad gets them directly from Tsukiji market and pairs it with his special miso, mixed with vinegar and mustard, at his restaurant Sushi Kuni. Next time you go to a Japanese restaurant, make sure to ask if they have it!

Just in at Sushi Kuni (my pop’s restaurant): RAW OCTOPUS (nama dako)! Kuni ordered this long, spindly tentacled arm last week straight from Tsukiji market. It was over three feet long, with a gorgeous purple-pink tone. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but there’s something oddly sexy about it.

Kuni lightly blanches it, only for a moment, so that it’s still raw in the middle. No vinegar necessary to tenderize it! Normal octopus is usually boiled thoroughly, often with vinegar, which is what makes this so especial.

Unlike usual octopus, which can get flavorless after so much chewing, this was so tender and sprightly! I would even say a bit crisp– like good mirugai (geoduck). I loved the texture. Kuni just sprinkles a bit of salt on it, and with a squeeze of lemon, it’s a pillowish, magnificent bite. I would recommend it sashimi style– don’t ruin it by adding rice to it.

For your nerds, here’s a great article by master food scientist Harold McGee about preparing octopus.