Tako – [Sushi | Foodlore]

Description

Tako – (Octopus.) – Hiragana:たこ Katakana: タコ Kanji: 蛸, 鱆 (真蛸)

• About this fish: Tako is the specialty street food of Osaka! Octopus tentacles are always served lightly cooked, boiled or seared, but they’re just as tasty Grilled, or served Minced & Fried in a batter into creamy Takoyaki! (蛸焼) Tako-yaki was invented in Osaka in the 1930’s and has been adored world wide ever since. (Here in Vancouver It’s also my favourite snack at our local events & expos!) There are many varieties of octopus, but type typically used for sushi is usually Madako (真蛸, common octopus), though the full bodies are often boiled and eaten, the tentacles served alone are the most popular. The underside of each tentacle must be scored in order to sit properly on a piece of Nigiri. (otherwise it slides right off!). – Octopus feature pretty heavily in Japanese folktales and mythology: A folktale from Shikoku, Kagawa prefecture, has it that a man named “Yazaimon” once stole 7 arms from a sleeping giant octopus, one day at a time over the course of a week! On the final day, just as he was about to steal the final arm and end the creature’s life, it woke up & dragged him into the sea.. (Moral is: Don’t be a Glutton!)

[octopus dance wildly in an edo period print by kuniyoshi]

[Sticker art by @Samkalensky, Part of my Nigiri Sushi/Foodlore collections.]