Baby octopus food name
Octopus Vs. Calamari – What’s The Difference?
Octopus and Calamari live in saltwater from the tropics to temperate zones. Like clams and oysters, octopus and calamari are mollusks (invertebrate sea creatures), classified as cephalopods, meaning “head-footed.” The ”arms,“ are connected to their heads, while the rest of the body is in front of the head.
Characteristics: Cephalopods are physiologically similar to other mollusks, but the main difference is their lack of a shell. An octopus does not have a shell at all, while calamari has a small internal flexible backbone called a pen. When in danger, both use defense mechanisms, such as swimming away quickly, camouflaging themselves, and shooting ink at their predators.
Habitat: Calamari swims in the open ocean waters, either alone or in schools, and uses its eight sucker-lined arms and two specialized tentacles to catch its prey, which consists of various fish and shrimp. Octopus are solitary creatures that live in dens on the seafloor, which trap their prey of bottom-dwelling crustaceans and mollusks, by using its eight arms lined with suckers.
Octopus is commonly confused with calamari, though both are surprisingly different in taste (when served raw) and cooking methods. Many people think calamari dishes are made from octopus, when in fact calamari is actually made from a type of squid. This confusion could be due to similar tastes when the octopus is prepared.
- Octopus
Octopus has a light taste that some compare to chicken or even pork. A low-calorie protein, both nutritious and filling, the octopus is full of vitamins and is low in fat and high in iron. Octopus can be prepared by blanching it in boiling water and then baking it, as well as boiling, grilling, or poaching. Because octopus evolves in taste depending on what ingredients are used when cooking, many prefer to eat it raw.
- Calamari
Calamari can be a bit tougher than an octopus but the meat has a smoother texture, and when cooked right is tender and firm.
The meat of calamari easily soaks up butter and sauces and can be prepared in a number of ways, such as braising, boiling, searing, and grilling. The key to getting a tender texture as opposed to a chewy one is by cooking the calamari hot and fast or low and slow. Cooking at temperatures in between will leave you with unpleasantly tough
Discover the deliciousness of both by ordering octopus nigiri or sashimi as an appetizer, and then calamari as an entrée served with teppanyaki vegetables, fried rice, soup, and house salad with ginger dressing. For one of the most unique dining experiences in Orlando, join us at Shōgun Japanese Steakhouse by calling 407-352-1607 to reserve your table.
Products | Sea Port
Handling Instructions for Baby Octopus
Our whole octopus is sourced from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan is offered in both raw and fully cooked (from Japan) and in sizes ranging from as small as an ounce to more than 13 pounds.
Regardless of the origin or size of our whole octopus the proper handling instructions are the same. Our frozen octopus must be stored at or below 0°F (-18°C) and then thawed properly when ready to cook or to eat in the case of our precooked Japanese product. The octopus should be stored in the freezer in the original package or in plastic wrap or a tight fitting plastic bag for product that has been removed from the original packaging. This will help prevent freezer burn (dehydration). Our IQF octopus has an 18 month frozen shelf life and our block frozen has a 24 month frozen shelf life. Links to proper seafood handling instructions: NOAA - Fish Watch: Handling Seafood and A Consumer Guide to Safe Seafood Handling.
Thawing Baby Octopus
Whole octopus can be thawed under refrigeration between 33 and 39°F until it is completely thawed. The thawing time is dependent upon if the octopus is IQF or block frozen. IQF octopus will thaw between 24 and 48 hours depending upon the size of the octopus and block frozen will take up to 48 hours or longer.
However, IQF and block frozen octopus can be quickly thawed by placing the product in a colander and running under cold water until thawed. In general, IQF octopus will thaw within several minutes while the block frozen may take 10 to 20 minutes or longer. This is our preferred quick thawing method to use whenever possible.
Important Instructions for Baby Octopus
Thawed raw octopus should be used immediately or within 1-2 days due to the fact that octopus in general has a relatively short thawed shelf life.
Cooking Tips
Whole raw octopus can be challenging to cook to a tender pleasing texture. This is especially true for the larger sizes that can run over 13 pounds. The smaller sized octopuses running less than 1/4th of a pound are less complicated to prepare. However, larger whole octopuses need to be boiled and tested periodically for tenderness during the cooking process. Because of this, our conveniently precooked octopus from Japan is gaining in popularity.
Links to cooking tips and recipes: Fish & Seafood Cooking and Recipes
Thailand
With more than 1,550 miles of coastline, Thailand—officially, the Kingdom of Thailand—has become one of the world’s leading seafood suppliers. Primary seafood products from Thailand include cultured (farmed) shrimp sold in various value-added forms as well as canned seafood—predominantly tuna.
With a focus on constant improvement of shrimp farming techniques to reduce impacts on the environment, as well as the development of new, value-added products, Thailand has emerged over the years as one of the leaders in this beloved seafood category.
In the tuna category, Thailand is a major global producer of canned tuna, much of it caught by vessels from other countries that bring it, frozen, to Thailand to be canned.
Vietnam
With a coastline of 2,140 miles, as well as numerous rivers and lakes, Vietnam has had a long tradition of fishing and a culinary tradition that includes finfish, shellfish, and molluscan shellfish.
Bordering China in the far North, and Laos and Cambodia in the middle and Southern regions, the country—known officially as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam—is divided into 58 provinces, and includes several major sea ports.
With seafood production surpassing USD $6 billion in 2012, seafood—both cultured and wild—represents an important export for this developing country.
Major seafood exports from Vietnam include cultured and wild shrimp: Black Tiger prawns and Penaeus vannamei are grown in Southeast Vietnam, and small white and pink shrimp are still commercially caught in the South China Sea off the southern coast.
In addition, Vietnam is becoming known for its high-tech seafood processing industry, adding value to commercially harvested and farmed fish and seafood.
Species that are commercially caught include Grouper, Red Snapper, Red Mullet, Tuna, Swordfish, and Barramundi—which are the major species that are exported to Australia, the United States, and the EU.
Vietnam is also a major producer of farmed Tilapia, and two species of Pangisius (boucourti and hypothalamus). Squid and octopus, as well as various species of lobster and crab and molluscan shellfish are also major export products as well as products consumed in-country.
India
The most populous democracy in the world, India has 1.2 billion people living in an area that is the world’s seventh-largest land mass. Bordering the countries of Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, and Bangladesh, India includes breathtakingly beautiful mountainous regions, plains, rivers (such as the legendary Ganges River), and valleys—and a coastline of 4,700 miles.
Within Indian marine waters, commercial species such as mackerel, sardines, shark, perch, tuna, shrimp, and cuttlefish are some of the main species harvested. Freshwater fish include carp and catfish and there are several species of brackish water fish.
India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) encompasses more than 2 million square kilometer, so there is a huge potential within India, provided that the fishery is managed to thwart overexploitation of the resource.
Top export items from India include frozen shrimp (the dominant seafood export), and frozen lobster tails, to name a few.
Aquaculture in India is growing in importance, however, and in addition to producing carp and giant river prawn for in-country consumption, India has begun to grow and export warm brackish water shrimp as well.
Biologists unraveled the mechanism of dramatic self-destruction of female octopuses
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World Ocean 27 September 2018, 17:05 September 27, 2018, 18:05 September 27, 2018, 19:05 September 27, 2018, 20:05 September 27, 2018, 21:05 September 27, 2018, 22:05 September 27, 2018, 23:05 September 28, 2018, 00:05 September 28, 2018, 01:05 September 28, 2018, 02:05 September 28, 2018, 03:05
- Julia Vorobieva
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Photo by Global Look Press.
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Photo by Yan Wang, UChicago.
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Photo by Global Look Press.
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Photo by Yan Wang, UChicago.
Motherhood in octopuses does not last long: after laying eggs, the females begin to literally starve themselves and, having waited for the cubs to appear, die.
What is the reason for such a cruel mechanism of self-destruction and why is it needed? American researchers are closer to the answer.
Octopuses have many scientifically curious abilities, such as seeing light with their skin, a unique body control strategy, and the ability to regrow lost limbs.
But there is one behavioral feature that haunted scientists. The fact is that female octopuses can reproduce offspring only once in their entire lives. When the female lays eggs, she spends all her time in a "nest" in a hole or cave, caring for her offspring. But at the same time, she gradually stops eating, and by the time the cubs appear, she dies.
According to marine biologists, observing these females is not for the faint of heart. In the last stages of life, mothers literally starve themselves and seem to hasten the approach of death by pinching off pieces of their own body or eating the tips of tentacles.
What is the reason for such a cruel mechanism of self-destruction and why is it needed? New work by researchers from the University of Chicago helped answer these questions.
They explain: the first clue came in 1977, when biologists conducted a series of experiments with octopus species Octopus hummelincki . The optic gland was removed from the animals - a part of the brain located between the eyes and similar in functioning to the pituitary gland of vertebrates.
When female octopuses had this gland removed, something strange happened: they lost their maternal instincts. The test subjects abandoned their newly born offspring, their appetite returned, and some even began to re-mate.
Experts concluded that it is likely that the optic gland of females, relying on the signals of the reproductive system, secretes some kind of "self-destruction hormone". The latter somehow affects eating behavior, possibly by deactivating the digestive and salivary glands. But scientists have not been able to study this phenomenon in more detail.
In 2015, a team from the University of Chicago sequenced the genome of the California two-spotted octopus (Octopus bimaculoides).
This, by the way, was the first cephalopod whose genome was completely sequenced.
And now the researchers decided to use these data to study the molecular signals emitted by the optical gland of female octopuses. In addition, the team described four phases of maternal behavior associated with these cues.
"These [phases] of behavior are so clear and stereotyped when you actually observe them. It's really interesting because for the first time we can determine the molecular mechanism for such dramatic behavior," says neuroscientist Yan Wang, one of the lead authors of the work. (Yan Wang).
Her team observed the behavior of the same California two-spotted octopus. As biologists note, usually females of this species are active predators who spend a lot of time hunting outside their lair.
However, in the first stage, the test subjects devoted all their time to the laid eggs, constantly ventilating and washing them. For three or four days, the females continued to feed, but left offspring for a short time and hunted not far from the "nest".
Then came the second phase: the females stopped eating completely, but still continued to carefully protect the eggs. This stage lasted eight to ten days.
Photo by Yan Wang, UChicago.
The third and fourth phases were really dramatic. Octopuses became lethargic, turned pale and lost muscle tone. At the same time, they had moments of sudden excitement: the females began to erratic grooming, actively moving their tentacles and wrapping their robes around themselves until they were completely entangled in them. Some began to thrash about and hit against the walls of the laboratory tanks.
After waiting for the cubs to appear, the females died.
"It bothered even the bystanders in the lab, because from a human point of view they looked like they were self-deprecating. It's very, very strange behavior," Wang admits.
At each stage, she and colleagues sequenced RNA transcriptomes from octopus optic glands. RNA carries instructions from DNA to make proteins, so sequencing is the best way to study gene activity and see what's going on in cells at any given time, the authors explain.
It turned out that prior to mating, females produced high levels of neuropeptides (small protein molecules) that enable the communication of neurons responsible for feeding behavior. However, after mating, the production of these neuropeptides was drastically reduced.
The researchers then noticed that the subjects had an increase in the activity of genes that are responsible for the production of neurotransmitters called catecholamines. These are steroids that metabolize cholesterol and insulin-like growth factors.
According to Wang, this was a complete surprise, since no one had previously thought that the optic gland could control processes other than reproduction.
However, it is not yet fully understood how these molecular and signal changes are associated with behavioral changes. Females in the early stages continued to feed, although they hunted less actively. This may mean that neuropeptides affect the amount of energy expended for hunting. In addition, the females lost muscle tone and probably the ability to digest food.
Experts believe that increased levels of steroids and insulin can also affect the reproductive system, due to which the animals begin to dominate maternal instincts and they redistribute energy, giving preference not to their own feeding and digestion of food, but to care for offspring.
"Before, when we first learned about optical hardware, it was like watching a movie trailer. You understand the essence of what is happening, but now we are starting to learn about the main characters, what their roles are and a little more about the backstory," shares his impressions from the work of Yan Wang.
She finds it still difficult to explain why creatures as intelligent as octopuses end up with such a "humiliating" death. There are several suggestions why they resigned themselves to such an end in the course of evolutionary development.
First, octopuses are cannibals, so the "biologically programmed" death of females may be a way to keep the cubs from being eaten by their own mothers.
Secondly, the terms of growth of octopuses are practically unlimited, and the elimination of adults conceived by nature does not allow populations of these mollusks to become dominant and thereby shake established ecosystems.
Curiously, many male octopuses also die shortly after mating, although they do not have "parental obligations" to care for their offspring.
Researchers are confident that future work will help them explain the strange mechanisms and learn more about these unusual marine inhabitants.
A scientific article on the results of a dramatic study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Let us add that earlier the authors of the Vesti.Science project (nauka.vesti.ru) reported on another fascinating study. Octopuses, considered loners, organized a whole “hostel” of stones and animal remains on the seabed.
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The most dangerous food in the world from Chefmarket
Food handling can always be a matter of life and death, but there are some of the most dangerous foods in the world that require extra care and attention to detail. Otherwise, there is a risk of serious illness or even death. Some of these products are exotic delicacies that are hard to find in Russia, while others are usually stored in a pantry or food warehouse.
This publication contains the most dangerous food in the world: from pufferfish to beans.
Fugu
Fugu is the Japanese word for puffer fish. A dish prepared from this fish can be deadly poisonous. And dishes from it deserve to be called the most dangerous food in the world. Why? The fact is that the ovaries, intestines and liver of fugu contain tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that is 1200 times more dangerous than cyanide.
FuguThe lethal dose of tetrodotoxin is less than the point of a pin, and one fish has enough venom to kill 30 people. If cooked incorrectly, fugu can paralyze the motor nerves and cause fatal respiratory arrest.
Japanese chefs must go through years of training to obtain a license to cook fugu, which makes the dish (understandably) expensive - up to $200. per serving. Despite these rules, the most dangerous food in the world does not cease to be so. Many people die every year as a result of improper preparation of fugu. But even such horrific statistics did not stop the Japanese: about 10,000 tons of fugu are consumed annually.
Sangnakji
Sangnakji is a Korean dish made from the tentacles of live baby octopuses. The peculiarity of the tentacles is that they are cut into pieces, seasoned and immediately served raw.
SannakjiCulinary daredevils eat tentacles while they are still writhing on their plate. And this unsightly sight is, without exaggeration, the most dangerous food in the world. The suction cups on the tentacles maintain the suction function even after the tentacles themselves have been torn off. Those who venture to indulge in such food must chew the tentacles vigorously and well before they stick to the palate.
Otherwise, the tentacles may stick to the mouth and throat and suffocate the guest of the establishment. According to Food & Wine, six people suffocate and die from eating (or trying to eat) Sannakji every year.
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