chefs who specialize in Asian-influenced cuisines list it on their menus more and more

frequently. With its tender white meat, it is a delicious seafood if you properly prepare it, and it

is proving to be a popularly ordered seafood in restaurants. Squid is very similar to octopus with

comparable flavor and texture, though they don't look the same, the two are from different

families. All they really have in common is the black ink.

Like octopus, squid has been very popular in Asian and Mediterranean cuisines for

centuries. Serve the small cigar-shaped squid whole or stuffed; deep-fry or pan-fry the tiny few

inches long squids, and cut the larger squids into rings or bite-size pieces.

You can count on 70 to 80 percent of the squid you buy at the seafood counter as edible

meat, but if it is cleaned, inedible parts removed, there is no waste, and 4 to 5 ounces (110 to 140

g) per serving is generous. If the mantle, head and pen (a primitive shell) are still on (you can ask

the clerk), buy 6 to 7 ounces (170 to 200 g) per serving. The canned varieties are hardly worth

trying.

TASTINGS Squid ink for writing?

In case you ever need it, you can order squid ink from a good fish market (about

$3 an ounce or $9 for 100 ml in late-1990s). You can use it as a natural black dye

to make black pasta for a great Halloween dish, or as a dye for any dish you want

to serve black for a change. In Spanish cuisine, the cooks add the ink to the sauce

they cook the squid in. The dish is a striking, glamorous jet black creation.

At the Fish Market

Is that seafood fresh?

No matter how much you know about seafood, there are two hazards that are difficult to

avoid—the freshness of the seafood you are buying and the correct labeling. Let’s tackle the

first, how fresh that seafood is.

Specialty books about seafood and cookbooks suggest that you smell and touch the meat

before buying it. Fresh seafood only have a mild, pleasant, sweet barely fishy scent and is firm to

the touch. Of course, if it is packaged, as it usually is in the market, you cannot tell if it smells

fishy until it long past fresh (and smells through the wrapper) and touching through the wrapper

doesn't tell you much. Mild poking is still possible, and this can give you some clue. Fresh

seafood have resilient flesh that bounces right back when you give it a gentle poke. If your finger

sinks in, let someone else take that package home.

If the fish sit on ice in the glass case, you cannot really ask the clerk behind the counter to

let you touch and sniff that rockfish. We have left with such advice from bygone days when

consumers traditionally bought fish at the open-air market at dawn. Today we have to rely on our

visual sense and previous experience in buying fish from the same source.

A survey by the non-profit Consumers Union (1992) looked at seafood contamination.

Bacteria counts in a large percentage of samples taken from a variety of retail markets far

exceeded acceptable levels, indicating the fish was either old or poorly handled. Cooking kills

bacteria, so you are not risking getting sick most of the time. What you are risking is a

disappointing meal, with the fish not meeting your taste expectations. Fortunately for us, this

fishy situation has been steadily improving over the years.

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