{"id":133,"date":"2008-09-12T14:43:06","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T05:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/?p=133"},"modified":"2008-09-12T14:43:06","modified_gmt":"2008-09-12T05:43:06","slug":"never-ever-buy-squid-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/12\/never-ever-buy-squid-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"Never ever buy squid heads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, maybe this goes without saying, but seriously? Don&#8217;t buy stuffed squid heads thinking you&#8217;re going to find some neat new dish just because your Japanese manager recommended them.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know where you&#8217;re from, but the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karaoke_Box\">Karaoke Box<\/a> establishments in Las Vegas serve squid-flavored snacks. Some people can&#8217;t stand squid-flavored anything, but I think they&#8217;re edible after a few drinks. Anyway, Ms. Semba recommended I try these stuffed squid heads that are sold in vacuum packs in the supermarket near my office. They&#8217;re hollowed out squid heads with the eyes removed, filled with seasoned, precooked rice. You&#8217;re supposed to boil them for five minutes and eat them, presumably with a knife and fork, as they&#8217;re not tender enough to pull apart with chopsticks.<\/p>\n<p>I knew as soon as I broke the seal on the plastic package that I&#8217;d made a tactical error, as the familiar scent of squid invaded my nostrils. As I already had the water boiling, I figured I might as well go through with it and just try it- who knows, maybe they&#8217;ll turn out to be great, right?<\/p>\n<p>No.<\/p>\n<p>No. I psyched myself up and took one bite of said squid, and that was all I could take. The outer texture was slightly less chewy than octopus sushi, and the flavor of the rice inside reminded me a little of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brucelowy.com\/kasha.htm\">kasha<\/a>, but not in a good way.<\/p>\n<p>No, and though I turned on the fan over the stove, my apartment is now saturated with the smell of boiled squid.<\/p>\n<p>No, and I had to put the squid head I didn&#8217;t touch and the one missing a bite in a ziploc bag so the smell doesn&#8217;t linger any more than it already will.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/picasaweb.google.com\/lh\/photo\/xZ2xAyWuqZ_yrZsrv76hUQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lh3.ggpht.com\/snolygoster\/SMn_oxlqBOI\/AAAAAAAAAsQ\/opmSv3LxptM\/s400\/DSCN0645cropped.jpg\" \/><\/a>No, no, no. Oh my god, no.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an appetizing picture of said squid heads after I sealed them for disposal. Each one fits easily in the palm of your hand. Or in the garbage can, your choice.<\/p>\n<p>Let this be a lesson to you. Don&#8217;t buy squid heads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, maybe this goes without saying, but seriously? Don&#8217;t buy stuffed squid heads thinking you&#8217;re going to find some neat new dish just because your Japanese manager recommended them. I don&#8217;t know where you&#8217;re from, but the Karaoke Box establishments in Las Vegas serve squid-flavored snacks. Some people can&#8217;t stand squid-flavored anything, but I think [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","tag-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidhed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}