Dry It, You'll Like It

Having a Filipino boyfriend means (almost) always having cephalopods around the house. Though not necessarily how I might prefer. In honor of unofficial International Cephalopod Awareness Day, I thought I'd show my true Bay Area foodie colors and reflect on the many wonders of dried squid and octopus.

Manuel (the BF) loves dried squid and octopus snacks. So much so that we usually have a few bags in the larder at any given time. While not my cup of tea, I must admit to being a big fan of octopus jerky ever since I chowed-down on my first few tentacles while on a teaching stint in Coos Bay, Oregon at the fabulous Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. My colleague and pal Trish Mace first introduced me to this local delicacy and I've been jonesing to get back to Coos Bay ever since. Damn you, Trish!

Drying has been a favorite means of preserving what at first glance might seem unpreservable. How else do you keep a slimy, boneless, and quick to stink mass of protein from "going off"? I suppose pickling is an option (and probably a tasty snack somewhere), though I must confess I'm not up to the challenge of pickled cephalopod. But if you have a lot of squid on hand and would like to stash some away for leaner times, drying as a preservative is a great way to go.

In addition to providing a longer shelf life, drying also intensifies flavor--which is either a good thing or bad thing depending on how you feel about cephalopod flavor. For me, a nice piece of octopus sushi is a perfect balance of chewiness and brine. But dried octopus crosses a line. It becomes unpleasantly chewy and way too strong in flavor. But not for Manuel. He can sit there and eat a whole bag of dried squid while enjoying Desperate Housewives.

Living next to one of the great US Chinatowns here in San Francisco and just north of the squid fisheries of Monterey Bay, we're lucky to have easy access to a rich history of cephalopod cuisine right here in our back yards. By 1853, some 500 to 600 Chinese fishermen worked the deep waters of Monterey Bay, California. The Chinese community had become well enough established that Cabrillo Point, the site of today's Hopkins Marine Station at the north of Cannery Row, became known as China Point.

The Chinese Fishermen in the Monterey Bay were particularly successful at harvesting squid. The fishermen discovered that squid were attracted to light. They would traditionally fish squid using three boats. One boat would light a lantern and place it above the surface of the water. The light would cause the squid to swim to the surface of the water. Two other boats would use a net to scoop up the squid.

Fishermen would split, salt, and spread the squid out on drying racks or rooftops. Octopus were often hung on clotheslines to drip dry. Once they were sufficiently dry, they would be packed into 130-pound bundles and shipped by steamer to San Francisco. Records in Monterey note that in the 1888 squid season, the Chinese shipped 230,000 pounds of dried squid from Monterey, a harvest valued at $12,500. Monterey was the only place in California where the squid season was large enough to support extensive squid fishing, and each year Monterey provided over 90% of California’s production of dried squid.

The popularity of dried cephalopods as primary protein sources has now shifted to capitalize on the growing snack markets. A visit to Singapore last year underscored this popularity. I decided to take in a movie at the Changi Cinema. As I ambled over to the snack bar for my standard popcorn and soda, I scanned the candy section. Right there between the chewing gum and Gummy Bears was the dried, sweetened Hello Kitty squid chunks. Bet you can't eat just one!

So with all this cephalopod eating going on, what about sustainability? A search on the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program website returned some good news yet some cause for caution. Squid and octopus are not considered vulnerable to overfishing since they grow fast and reproduce at a young age. Fishing methods—traps, diving, hand capture—lead to little bycatch, and while traps can do moderate damage to the habitat, the other methods are relatively harmless.

Although octopus overfishing does not seem likely, some concern remains because octopus populations in the Gulf of California fisheries are unknown, and management of the fishery is minimal. Squid fishery success is dependent on ocean conditions such as temperature and prey availability, and squid abundance varies from year to year and place to place.

Squid fisheries on the high seas are problematic because regulations do not exist or are rarely enforced and squid abundance is largely unknown. In addition, squid play an important role in marine food webs as both predator and prey and are an important source of food for marine mammals such as sperm whales. Increasingly, squid are becoming the target in areas where other species have declined due to overfishing. Without effective management and enforcement measures in place Seafood Watch is concerned that squid fisheries are at risk of collapse.