Canned Octopus

I've eaten plenty of cephalopods throughout my years but it was the packaging that caught my eye on this one. The picture, misleading as they all are, seemed to indicate that the can would contain intact tentacles and I simply couldn't pass up that photo opportunity. Much to the dismay of my visual cortex, gripping the pull-tab and peeling back the lid of the can revealed several mini-filet looking slices of tentacle. So, being the complete weirdo that I am, I worked with what I had and set about trying to reconstruct a whole appendage out of the pieces.

Photographic activities aside, I thought the taste of the octopus was going to be ruined by the oil it was packed in but, after a quick flash, much of the oil came off and helped cook the outer flesh.

Octopus is a very rubbery meat, much like chewing on fish flavored twizzler. I was rather surprised to find that the quality of this specimen was rather high with the texture of a fresh catch and the natural smokey flavor that can be found in good octopus and squid.

While I don't plan on getting this again because the portion was rather small for the price, I'd recommend it to anyone needing some good cephalopod as a minor ingredient for a dish in regions where fresh caught seafood is out of the question.