This really sounds delicious.
Hand-grilled in iron molds by cooks behind a large display window, the octopus dumplings are made from wheat flour paste mixed with fish stock, spring onions and boiled octopus chunks, and drizzled with a sweet sauce, dried bonito flakes and seaweed.
I could go for some takoyaki right now. Unfortunately, the bad news is that it’s from a story about introducing cephalopods as mass-market fast food in the US. If they became popular here, kiss a lot of beautiful molluscs good bye.
I’m going to have to advocate more vegetarianism, I’m afraid. Maybe we could indulge in some octopus dumplings on a few special occasions, but we’d be better off turning fruit and vegetables into the next big food fad.
<sigh> But seafood tastes so good…
What if they could be farmed in a sustainable way?
Japan’s population is a little under half of the US’, and it’s safe to say that takoyaki will never be as popular in the US as it is in Japan. The real scare is when seafood becomes more popular in China (where, of course, it’s already popular, but where they’re adopting more and more of a culture of conspicuous consumerism).
Also, what about trade-offs? More takoyaki probably means a little less beef … which, considering how bad raising cattle American-style is for the environment, is probably a good idea. Also, if it expands American taste for more exotic fare, we can get yak, ostrich, or whatever instead in a few years.
And fond as I am of tropical fruits (dragonfruit, mango, papaya!), how do you propose to turn “fruit and vegetables” into the next big thing? We like our fat and protein … yum.
And I know you were probably just joking, but wouldn’t it also be great if we got more people thinking abotu where their food came from instead of thinking it comes from the supermarket?
Why not get our fat and protein from insects?
Is it possible to grow octopi commercially?
Cephalopod biomass is 200 million tons or more, whereas the annual harvest so far is only 3 million tons. Cephalopods or short-lived, so this harvest looks sustainable.
Cephalopod biomass pdf
Continuing to kill sperm whales is the most effective method of cephalopod protection. Greenpeace is not our friend.
I’m going to have to advocate more vegetarianism, I’m afraid.
Hah! I see through your plot! You merely fear that we will rise up and eat our Squid Overlords, and your cushy sinecure as their prophet will be lost!
On the other hand, I wonder if it’s possible to make soy-calamari?
Stanton, the truth is that in Chinese Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, they make surprisingly effective mock-everything! I think I may even have had mock-mollusc …
“This really sounds delicious.” -PZ Meyers
Takoyaki is excellent, but somewhat of a pain to make by hand at home. It takes patience, timing, and quite a bit of manual dexterity. The end results are often sloppy…
…but it tastes SO GOOOOOOD!
So does tako (octopus) tempura…
The Next Big Thing will be international cuisine: the tako taco.
You make it sound like Rocky Mountain Oysters…
Besides the only way to truly enjoy eating octopus is fresh from the tank and still moving. It can get a bit challenging when the suckers attach to your chopstick (or your mouth), but there’s nothing quite like eating food that fights back.
I’m going to have to advocate more vegetarianism, I’m afraid.
To ease your mind here are some words of wisdom……..
I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.– A. Whitney Brown
A disturbing thought – do Fundamentalist Vegans (is there such a thing?) eat cephalopods, given that they’re NOT ALIVE
And fond as I am of tropical fruits (dragonfruit, mango, papaya!), how do you propose to turn “fruit and vegetables” into the next big thing? We like our fat and protein … yum.
Fat and protein are not limited to the animal kingdom. I’ve been eating vegan now as a trial for 5+ months, and I’ve had so many excellent meals with flavor, protein, fats. Try some fried tofu triangles with Thai peanut sauce or good vegan cookies.
They like them gooey in the more remote areas of Japan. Gooey Octopus Balls would be a good name… No, sorry it wouldn’t.
Takoyaki with some fish flakes and oyster sauce. Mmm mmm! Don’t see it catching on here…
I have dibs on “Tako Bell” (where’s a trademark lawyer when you need one?)
Sorry, but “good vegan cookies” is an oxymoron. But a great band name!
Takoyaki is very delicious and easy to make in your own home with a takoyaki grilling plate! With a little experimentation with various ingredients, I think that the US market would appreciate ham-yaki just as much.
Ham is just as chewy and succulent as tako in this dish and has less of the “yuck” factor! If it ever becomes popular in the US, I predict it will be hamyaki, not takoyaki.
So fear not, my cephalopodophile!
Which gives me an idea on how we can make this idea popular. Does one of you have George Foreman’s phone number?
I love the taste of squid and octopus too, but the more I read about how smart these animals seem to be, I can’t really bring myself to eat them any more.
Oysters are still OK though, right?
Sorry, but “good vegan cookies” is an oxymoron.
That is incorrect. Try ’em before you deny ’em.
Remember, use fish stock and not plain water and your balls will taste good.
I’ll bet there’s no beating your balls, Ronald.
A disturbing thought – do Fundamentalist Vegans (is there such a thing?) eat cephalopods, given that they’re NOT ALIVE
ye gods! that brings back horrible memories of the hoops one had to go through to file an animal use report because of all the animal rights hoopla at Berkeley. First, only the mammals were considered “alive”, then it was the reptiles and birds, then the fish… a gradual progression that now probably means one has to file an animal use report to culture bacteria in petri dishes.
*sigh*
don’t get me wrong, good animal husbandry is always a wise thing, but it was pretty obvious that the entire effort was merely a conciliation to the extreme animals rights groups that picketed Berkeley all the damn time.
I remember they had stripped the old life sciences building on campus, and while they were working on it, there was of course a fence errected to prevent injury. I once managed to convince the animal rights protesters that “secret animal research” was going on in there; that’s why the fence was there! So they proceeded to march around the gutted life sciences building for the rest of the day.
ahhh, good times.
Is there any other part of the matzo you can eat?
–Marilyn Monroe
You should try my recipe for emu balls with red wine and coriander. They’re delicious and heart friendly.
For the record, (and I’m not saying this to suck up– really!) I don’t eat octupuses on account of them being too cute to eat. Octupus, dolphins, whales and primates are just about the only animals I won’t eat. I just can’t do it. Squid, on the other hand– I’ll fry those up in a heartbeat. Dear SyndicatedAdviceColumnistâ¢, does this mean I’m weird?
I’ve heard that something like 80% of Japan’s squid comes from African waters.
And RavenT, I want you to know that it was very difficult for me to resisting the temtation to reply to your comment and turn this thread into something from a Carry On movie.
I’m opposed to eating animals, and while I understand how much we owe to animal experimentation, I oppose all unecessary and cruel forms of experimentation.
I use cruelty-free products and believe in cruelty-free living in general. I applaud Whole Foods’ decision not to sell Lobster anymore. I doubt I will ever buy another down sleeping bag or pair of leather shoes. I once transported a cockroach by plastic container to the parking lot at my place of work because my partner didn’t want it around and didn’t want to kill it either (this doesn’t work for ants, mind you). I admire the compassion animal rights activists show for other living things on the planet.
Oh, that would have been just fine, Ronald (although I had to look up “Carry On movie”). Maybe not exactly Hepburn and Tracy, but I was cribbing from an old “Saturday Night Live” sketch myself.
[i]and while I understand how much we owe to animal experimentation, I oppose all unecessary and cruel forms of experimentation.
[/i]
ahh, but that’s the problem, yes? Who is qualified to decide what is a necessary or useful experiment that utilizes an animal? somebody simply with compassion for “all animals”? or somebody who actually knows enough about the animal’s biology, or ecology to realize the value of proposed research?
what if the research would answer an evolutionary question instead of a question relating to the ecology of the organism?
what if the research would answer interesting questions on how vision works?
Who decides if it is important to know how cats process visual information?
I appreciate the input acitivists have had on encouraging good animal husbandry in bio labs, but I definetly feel their influence should end at that. Past that, it should be the personal decision of the researchers themselves, who may or may not have their own personal beliefs on the issue.
Does it have to be octopus? I imagine there are oodles of cuttlefish and the like around – which is not to say we need not worry about overfishing.
The cold hard fact is that, given universal common descent, you WILL be eating your relatives or starving to death. You can choose *how distant* a relative. That’s it.
Personally, I would feel uncomfortable eating a fellow ape, and probably any primate, except maybe in cases of actual starvation; but I don’t mind eating other mammals. Some people would probably eat anything other than humans; some draw the line at mammals, some at warmblooded tetrapods, some at vertebrates, some at animals. All are arbitrary positions and you have to adopt *one* of them or you can’t eat at all.
Anyway, I second the octopus farming suggestion. Unless there’s some reason octopus just *can’t* be farmed, at some point it will become more cost-effective than trying to catch them out of the ocean. We haven’t exactly driven cows extinct by eating them.
actually, cuttlefish are already in trouble in many areas, and have been for some time. Those “cuttlebones” that cuttlefish use as an internal shell (among other things), are used in several industries, like calcium chewtoys for birdies. You can buy them at your local petsmart.
so, I wouldn’t suggest switching to cuttlefish as a food source as well.