S T A R T E R S
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ack in the day, your chip shop choice was easy – cod or haddock, and no-one was going wrong with either. But then came overfishing and temperature rises, and a sudden topple into the Marianas trench for stocks of the classic whitefish varieties. (Cod numbers, at least, have recovered somewhat since.) Where regular swimmers have been struggling, though, the cephalopods are thriving. This tentacled trio (squid, cuttlefish and octopus) have been increasing in numbers dramatically thanks to warmer oceans – which these invertebrates love – and yes, perhaps the lack of rival fish to eat the squishy snacks when they’re little. In places like Australia and South Africa, squid is already a staple of the fish and chip shop, and we’re surely not far behind. Strangely enough, many people who are funny about oddball food still quite like squid, perhaps because they’re most often encountered as calamari – crisp, salty, deep-fried morsels, not unlike chewy onion rings – which hold little fear, or discernible seafood taste. (Even the name ‘calamari’ is cute: it derives from the latin for ‘ink pot’.) By the time most kids realise these things are not a close cousin to the chicken nugget, but are actually
a jelly-like oceanic weirdo that wouldn’t look out of place in an Alien film, it’s doesn’t matter; they’ve got used to them. (This is not to knock calamari, of course; it’s ace when done well, especially by a good Thai or Mediterranean chef.) Squid really are incredible creatures, surprisingly intelligent (some are known to hunt in packs) and moving by a very precise form of jet propulsion, sucking water into their body’s mantle cavity then shooting it out of a siphon to power them on their way. They each have three hearts and, though most squid are no more than a couple of feet long, some species get famously bigger. The giant squid can reach 13m long, for instance, and the lesser seen colossal squid is even larger. While everything from sharks to seabirds love eating squid, these suckers are happy to return the favour, using their speed and excellent eyesight to locate and close on fishy victims, which they grab with two long, hooked, suckered tentacles and kill with a bite from the beak. (Squid are, however, fussy eaters, often taking the best flesh and discarding the rest; blame their fear of fish bones, which can puncture their throats and pierce the surrounding brain.)
Squid
WIBBLY-WOBBLY INVADERS FROM WARMER SEAS, OR A FUTURE CHIP SHOP STAPLE? ACTUALLY, THEY’RE BOTH, BECAUSE WHILE FISH STOCKS STRUGGLE, THE SQUIDS ARE ALRIGHT…
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