Some of the most memorable dishes I've ordered at restaurants have been squid dishes. I still remember that I always wanted the marinated squid dim sum dish when I was just a kid in Sydney. I don't remember the specifics, but the tentacles were a perfect vibrant color and the sauce was perfect. I've been disappointed with dim sum restaurants ever since. After that, I've had countless Chinese salt and pepper fried squid dishes. More recently, I ordered a delicious grilled squid dish at Volare in Chicago and an unbelievable marinated baby octopi at a Korean BBQ place. I bought frozen squid rings in the past only to find frozen squid disappointingly shrunken, watery and rubbery. I decided then to get the real deal fresh squid from H-mart and gut it myself. Well, I wish I had taken some pictures but I decided to spare the world of the disgusting-ness. I thought I had a pretty high tolerance for nasty, gross things-I did experience several intense months of anatomy dissection-but squid is gross. Embedded in the tentacles were these little eyeball things which exploded with ink, and some sort of claw thing. When I tried to squeeze those bits out, it looked like it was giving birth. At several points, I had to remind myself that the thing was already dead. It looked like it was going to come back to life! Then, inside the tube, it had more fleshy squishy bits, and some stuff that looked like red curry.
Well it was quite the experience. I just covered it with S+P and sauteed it in a lot of oil. If I had a lime and a bed of salad greens, that would had been a nice salad dish. I think, however, that I will go back to ordering it in restaurants. Too much work to clean (shudder) and I don't have a great recipe on hand.
