"octopus" news and stories

The Octodog is a gadget that bills itself as a "frankfurter converter." In a matter of seconds, it can cut an ordinary hot dog into a hot dog that resembles a sea creature, namely an octopus. The device is made out of sturdy plastic and cuts through the dogs by applying pressure, without the use of a blade. This makes it child-safe, but produces edges that are somewhat dull. To show off the "legs," the Octodog really needs to be served on a plate, not in a bun.

To be frank(furter), I can honestly say that I have never had a desire to try and convert a hot dog into any form of marine life, though sites selling them proclaim that "kids love them!" and I will admit that it is sort of cute, especially with some cartoon eyes added. If you want to check one out, they're for sale here.

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For the third installment of their hit series, Top Chef, Bravo wanted to take the competition up a notch by bringing in some very discerning judges: a group of forty 10-year olds. The theme of the whole episode seemed to be to make unappealing food appealing, both visually and taste-wise, to a group of picky eaters, hence the name of the episode: Nasty Delights.

The quickfire challenge, which awards immunity from elimination, at the beginning of the show dealt with octopus. Given a whole octopus, the chefs had 60-minutes to make it look and taste good - a difficult feat on any day, but compounded by the fact that some people had never really dealt with the ingredient before.  Braising seemed to be the cooking method of choice and the guest judge, Laurent Manrique of San Francisco's Aqua restaurant, had a difficult time judging. In fact, there were four dishes that he liked, but Tiffani's traditionally prepared octopus dish, brimming with Mediterranean flavors, was what won her the challenge.

It's a fancy word, "cephalopod," but it's really just squid and octopus at the sushi bar.

Octopus is called "tako," and is usually cooked, which might be more appealing for people who are squeamish about eating raw fish, but than again, it is octopus. Though some talented sushi chefs may know of some secret way to tenderize octopus, I have found that it is pretty bland as well.

"Ika" is squid, and this one is usually raw. It looks harmless because of it's plain white, slippery smooth texture, but like octopus, even raw, ika is fairly tough to chew. However, you may also recognize ika by cross-hatch knife cuts on the squid, which a sushi chef's attempt to make it a little more palatable. Like octopus, I usually skip the squid as well.

Previous lessons at the School of Fish:
Saba - holy mackerel!
Hirame - white fish, sometimes halibut
Tai and Suzuki - snapper and sea bass
Maguro - tuna
Toro - fatty belly of tuna
Shiro Maguro - "white" tuna, aka albacore
Ahi tuna
Hamachi - amberjack, aka yellowtail
Sake - salmon
Gai - the bivalves, i.e.clams, scallops, and oysters
Ebi - shrimp

It's hip to eat savory ice creams, and if you go to a food festival you're bound to see something in the creamy, cold category no matter what the topic - even, yes, garlic. But octopus, that's an ice cream I've never either (a) tried or (b) cared to try. Jason from Damn Interesting agrees, and says: "damnit, we have to draw a line, and Octopus Ice Cream would have to be on the far side of that line."

Watch Iron Chef and you're bound to see some strange ice creams. Sure, sure, that's a spur-of-the-moment exercise in bizarro creativity. But this is a packaged variety available commercially. Does it sell? Has anyone tried it?

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