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Posted By: AnnaStrophic calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 05:53 PM
What does this word mean to y'all? I have a fairly firm opinion which I am willing to dislodge & reassess once I hear what everyone else has to say.

Posted By: jheem Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 06:04 PM
Calamari is squid. It's nice in a sort of vinegrette or deep fried, but then so many things are nice fired. Squid are different from octapus, but they taste about the same: but it can be kind of rubbery. The etymology is cool: from Latin calamarium 'pen-case' < calamus 'reed, stalk; pen', borrowed from Greek kalamos. Related to OE healm and Latin culmus 'stem, straw'.

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 06:09 PM
I think it's a fancy way to get people to eat something they normally wouldn't.
I had some wonderful calamari at Nico's in NYC a couple of summers ago... yum...

Posted By: musick Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 06:25 PM
One often gets two different shapes together when ordering 'round these parts: 1" to 2" or so complete mini-squids and tenticles from a larger squid cut across-wise into rings.

I'm partial to the marinated in olive-oil/garlic/lemon juice/seasonings over the nice 'fired' version. Who loves ya, Baby?

Posted By: jheem Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 06:31 PM
Ah, yes, the "fired" version is covered in crushed chilis. Hmm. Typo or language change? You be the judge.

Posted By: Faldage Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 06:33 PM
Typo or language change?

That's the thrid time this question has come up in a week.

Posted By: jheem Re: domo arigato misuta roboto - 04/21/04 06:39 PM
This just reminded me of a lyric from a Styx song: about being a "modren man". Anybody know of a dialect that uses this kind of metathesis?

Posted By: musick Here come the judge! - 04/21/04 06:40 PM
Isn't this (incorrectly attributed) Freud's proverbial question?

editAnybody know of a dialect that uses this kind of metathesis?

American English?

There's that gremlin again...
Posted By: belMarduk Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 08:28 PM
Mmmmmmm, fried calamari with loads of salt. We have a Greek resto here that serves the best fried calamari. The only problem is that it is so good you just can't stop eating until you reach to bottom of the bowl.

I don't think I've ever seen calamari cut the way you say though Musick. In all the restos I've been in they are cut sideways to create O-rings (like small onion rings) until the tentacles then the tentacles are just fried up as is in a lump.

I know some people won't eat the tentacle part since it is too much like the real thing (like folks who won't eat fish if they have the eyes on em).

I don't think than calamari and octopus taste the same at all. I find that octopus has more fishy taste and the texture is akin to calf liver.

Posted By: musick Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 08:34 PM
The rings we are talking about sound like the same thing. I thought they cut rings from the tenticles of a larger species. Hmmm.

Posted By: belMarduk Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 08:45 PM
Sorry Musick, I completely misread your post (gotta be the cold medicine, the Benylin or the NeoCitran) I read just "crosswise" and didn't see "ring"

Actually, the rings are the head and body of the squid, emptied out and cut. If you look at a squid, you'll see that the head & body look a little bit like a missle (bomb) and the tentacles stick out the flat bottom into a point when they swim. They are quite cute in the water.



Posted By: jheem Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/21/04 08:53 PM
Having handled and cleaned squid, I thought the rings came from the body. Above the eyes and tentacles. As for the taste, I'm pretty sure that I could tell the difference between calamari and octopus, but they both taste more like each other than chicken.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/21/04 10:36 PM
One numeric way you can tell a squid from an octopus is a squid has ten rather than eight tentacles, but you have to be able to count to ten.

I think of calamari as a battered form of squid and something I'd find in Italian and Greek restaurants. I often order the calamari appetizer as a meal at certain local restaurants because the serving is substantial.

However, as Faldage knows, I prepare a dish a Bostonian lady taught me how to cook--but we called it fried squid, not calamari. It wasn't battered, but, instead, was simply fried in butter with parsley and served over toasted French bread. Without the batter, you really have to be a squid lover because there is no disguise.

Posted By: sjmaxq Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/21/04 10:42 PM
>. Without the batter, you really have to be a squid lover

Or a squid-hater, depending on your perspective.

Posted By: Wordwind Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/21/04 10:46 PM
Oh, when I take my batter off, it is very evident I am a squid lover!

Posted By: sjmaxq Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/21/04 11:14 PM
> it is very evident I am a squid lover!

It's likely I've been whooshed, but I shall bite anyway. My thought was that squids would probably consider eagerness to eat them as being typical of a squid-hater, rather than a squid-lover.

Posted By: Faldage Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/21/04 11:24 PM
Or, as Churchy Lafemme so aptly put it, "You loves me. With pot likker an black-eyed peas you loves me."

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: calamari vs squid - 04/22/04 11:29 AM
Wordwind says: I think of calamari as a battered form of squid...

So do I. In fact, that's why I brought this up. To me, calamari means the squid's been battered and fried. I have a friend who's opening a restaurant and calamari is on her menu. But it's not battered and fried, so I just want to get an idea of what y'all'd expect seeing "calamari" on a menu.

Posted By: dxb Re: calamari vs squid - 04/22/04 11:54 AM
According to the dictionary, calamari is squid used as food. I'm used to eating it as musick describes - miniature complete squids plus 'o' rings presented in a light lubricant. Can't ever remember having it in batter - or fried for that matter.

Posted By: Once Re: calamari vs squid - 04/22/04 11:56 AM
Let's not be so quick there. Battered and fried calamari will be an appetizer on the menu. I'll also be using the rings in paella. Dual service.

Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: calamari vs squid - 04/22/04 12:18 PM
welcome, Once!
ah, that the internet could provide samples. beam me some calamari, Scotty...

Posted By: wow Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/22/04 12:39 PM
Ugh! Can't stand the stuff. Like chewing an old tire. Yes, I tried it. Very common in Hawaii. I'd much rather have a nice dish of sweet poi.

Posted By: AnnaStrophic Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/22/04 12:46 PM
Madame Wow, does the word bring to mind battered-and-fried or not? That's what I'm trying to suss here.

Posted By: Faldage Re: calamari FWIW - 04/22/04 12:59 PM
AHD4 and M-W agree, it's squid used (M-W) or prepared (AHD4) as food:

http://www.bartleby.com/61/39/C0023900.html

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=calamari&x=18&y=20

Posted By: jheem Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/22/04 01:06 PM
AnnaStrophic. For me calamari are cephalopods, either swimming around in the sea or prepped for cooking, but that's because that's what it means in Italian. (It's also plural, calamaro being the singular.) There are a bunch of ways to cook squid. Here's some of the ways I've had it: chopped into rings and tentacles and then either fried or marinated, cut into "steaks" and fried, cooked in their own ink, as one of the many seafood items in Chinese seafood soup noodle, on top of a bullet of vinegared rice as nigiri sushi, BBQed whole and served on a stick, etc.) But the default serving that comes to my mind is the one I like best: marinated salad of rings and tentacles. Hmm.

Posted By: wow Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/24/04 12:58 PM
No matter how you disguise it, it's still not my dish.

All I see when I hear the word calamari or squid or octopus is an Hawaiian fisherman, knee deep in the ocean's waters, holding a trident aloft with a many tentacled thing on it.
I wish you all joy of the dish, many do enjoy it I know. You all can have my share. And if you aren't eating your poi, would you pass it on to me, please?
Posted By: Jackie Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/24/04 02:09 PM
'o' rings presented in a light lubricant [heave e] Okay--dixbie likes his on a space shuttle, bel likes hers a-salted and WW likes hers battered. Quite a variety we have here. To add to the mix, my son once (Oh--welcome aBoard, Once!) came back to our table at the buffet restaurant with a tiny whole squid--perched atop a mound of ice cream.
Anna, to address your question: I have seen "Fried Calamari" on menus, so I think calamari must just mean squid.
(Darn you, jheem--first I wrote Fired, then I wrote FRied!)

Posted By: musick Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/24/04 05:43 PM
...dixbie likes his on a space shuttle...



Battered? I'll have to report you to the ASPCA. Squids are people, too!

http://www.animationmeat.com/squiddly.html

Posted By: belMarduk Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/25/04 01:46 AM
>>>No matter how you disguise it, it's still not my dish.

When calamari isn't cooked properly, it is a little like eating rubber erasers. It this is how you've had them Wow, it's not surprising you don't like em.

If ever you come up here Wow, I bring you to this restaurant that serves the best calamari. They are extremely tender and quite tasty.

Posted By: wow Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/25/04 12:58 PM
Ahhh, deal Bel - so kind. I will have a bite of your order, however with a Kleenex handy in case I have to expectorate it - in a lady-like manner, of course!

Posted By: belMarduk Re: calamari (yes, a food thread!) - 04/25/04 09:52 PM
>>>in a lady-like manner, of course!

Of course



Posted By: Bingley Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/26/04 02:02 AM
In reply to:

One numeric way you can tell a squid from an octopus is a squid has ten rather than eight tentacles, but you have to be able to count to ten.


And how do cuttlefish fit in? Purely as a matter of scientific interest. I have eaten calamari, and seen whole baby squid in seafood soups, but on the whole would rather not eat anything with more limbs than me.

Bingley

Posted By: consuelo Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/26/04 03:03 AM
on the whole (I) would rather not eat anything with more limbs than me

I couldn't have put it better myself, my dear Bingley! Calamari is Spanish for squid no matter which way you cook the poor critters.


Posted By: of troy Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/26/04 02:46 PM
we'd need a expert on cephlapods to explain how squids and cuttle fish differ.

squids, cuttlefish and octopus are all members of the same family.

squids and octopus have 'hard,bony beaks' at their mouths, and squids and cuttle fish have a small hard plate (not bone, but hard) that gives their body's some shape (the shape of this hard plate is sort of a flattened cone.)

almost all of them are edible, and the sizes vary from very small (palm of the hand size) to 6 or more feet long!

i think, like many 'common names', there is overlap (what one group calls a cuttle fish, another group might call a squid.

(i think of shrimp/prawns/crawfish... i don't think there is a real difference between shrimp and prawns-i think they are different names for the same animal. (even if both shrimp and prawns are used in an area) one man's jumbo shrimp is another man's prawn.



Posted By: jheem Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/26/04 03:02 PM
The giant squid can weigh up to a ton and measure up to 60 feet in length (Architeuthis clarkei). There's another living member of cephalopods: the nautilus, which wears its shell externally. One interesting trait of squids/octopodes is how rapidly and well they can change their coloring.

Posted By: Bingley Re: Octopus: Can you count to ten? - 04/27/04 02:13 AM
In reply to:

i think of shrimp/prawns/crawfish... i don't think there is a real difference between shrimp and prawns-i think they are different names for the same animal.


I remember reading somewhere that in the UK there is a legal boundary between shrimp and prawns. If there are more than a certain no. of beasties to the pound, ounce or whatever, they are shrimps, below that they are prawns.

Bingley

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