January 11, 2010

Written by: Vince McConeghy

A recent dish of salt and pepper squid (not rings, strips) at my friend's favorite Chinese restaurant made me confront this uncomfortable truth about calamari - there is no end to squid, only a beginning.

For years, I swaggered in the knowledge that the way I prepared fried calamari for my customers was good. I had no secret. It was all in the details, starting with fresh product, cleaned, dredged  in flour, salt, pepper, red chile flakes, and then fried in clean oil. It was all so simple that I watched in horror as repeatedly the prep cooks I taught this procedure to embellished the recipe for want of something  more"innovative", until my original treatment was rendered inedible.

Along the way, I was introduced to other methods of merit, such as different storing liquids for the raw product, or a different coating base for the dredging, but I stubbornly clung to the belief that my way was better. I learned how to grill squid by opening the sack, making tiny slits on the sides so that when the squid was placed flat on the grill, they would eventually curl up and I could then julienne and marinate the pieces in a salad. 

Oh, how clever.

But then a man of Cantonese origin, who took cap naps on sacks of flour in the back of his restaurant between lunch and dinner service, upper cut me with  a plate of his salt and pepper squid. Luckily I had seen the film A Serious Man and was prepared to accept the moment - I knew then what I don't know. 

Now, I know  that I know nothing of squid. Not how to prep it. Not how to prepare it. I am a squid rube, merely pretending.

China, Italy, Costa Rica, Norway, Bora Bora. You find squid in all of these locations, in all of their food lexicons. One could spend an entire career in the kitchen mastering squid preparations and never be satisfied nor accused of time ill-spent (A squid only fast food restaurant is in the works).

The other thing about squid is that if you spill fresh squid juice from a 10lb tub on the back seat of your car on the way from the fish monger (as I did in the early 90s), this automatically red flags your vehicle in the Car Fax history report and resets its  re-sale value to zero.

Here is a link to some squid preparations that might inspire. Or maybe, you are like me, thinking you have the market cornered until somebody comes along and gets their tentacles into your squid psyche.

Plate online calamari database

Foodieview squid recipe database

SquidFish.com recipe database