Friday, September 11, 2009

What it is like to eat raw squid.

Adventurous aren't I?
What can I say? I do the craziest things for research, within reason, and I don't know where it was that day.
The first thing I should note is that when they bring you squid on your sushi plate, it is placed upon a little roll of sticky rice. Trust me, you want both in your mouth at once.
With the rice, it's not bad. Completely flavorless. I expected salty, and I was wrong. There was no flavor at all.
There was a snap to the squid when I bit into it, then as I chewed it just mixed in with the rice. It was rather unremarkable really. I didn't like it as much as the smoked salmon (now that's good stuff) but I didn't mind the squid at all. I wasn't into the brand of soy sauce they had on hand, so I only dipped it lightly to give it a little flavor.
Then my husband noticed that the thin triangles left when the chef shaped my previous mouthfuls were used as part of the garnish. He scooted them over to my side of the plate and I blithely picked one up with my chopsticks and put it in my mouth.
It was then that I discovered what raw squid is like without rice.
That initial snap was there, where my teeth met the resistance of the meat then the pressure of my jaw suddenly broke through. Then I moved the bite to my molars and started to chew. Squid is not as hardy of a meat as it would initially seem. It's like the opposite of steak, which is tender and pliant at first but resilient in the long run. Instead, squid is firm in the beginning, but then dissolves into a puddle of slime in your mouth.
The worst part was, I wasn't careful to bite all the way through, so I had a layer of slime that my teeth had created on both surfaces, but the inside remained intact. So I had to cut through the layers of slime and sever that intact layer in order to swallow.
Then the slimy sensation of it going down almost brought the rest of my eight bucks back up.
If you ever get brave enough to try raw squid, eat it with the rice, and good sauce.

4 comments:

Aaron and crystal said...

I think that I will stick with my Deep fried Shrimp smothered in Ranch :)

Thora said...

Ranch?
Hmmm my little blondie takes after her Auntie then.
I miss Boomtown deep fried shrimp, straight up, no ruining it with sauce.

JerieH said...

I am with Crystal on this one! Although I think squid isn't so bad breaded and deep fried... isn't everything better deep fried?

AutismPsyD said...

Brave one, aren't you?

Reminds me of eating tripe, or venison grease that sort of explodes and coats every nook and cranny in the teeth (and resists leaving)...okra, too...ack! gag! grrrross!

probably why a box of squid stayed in the freezer in Reno for years until it was so freezer burnt it look mummified, just couldn't bring myself to try to cook it, much less eat it raw. Aren't you glad?