<p>binx: you over-achiever you.</p>
<p>That’s it. I am giving up all my day-jobs (which sucked anyway) and just hanging out here waiting for the next installment.</p>
<p>I thought clams came from a can?</p>
<p>Wow! I feel so … so … SATISFIED! And … warm all over! Thank you binx and fencersmother for understanding and making my day! I think I’ll get to work now.</p>
<p>Although I STILL have an unanswered question about calamari! I guess no one has a good answer!</p>
<p>True story: We were in Savannah, walking along the riverfront. A waiter with a platter of fried something, and a cool British accent, was standing outside offering samples. “What is it?” I asked. “Calamari” he said. “I don’t do octopus,” I told him. In his affronted British accent, he said, “It’s NOT octopus; it’s squid!”</p>
<p>As if that should make a difference! One of our family’s favorite lines now. (However, my H and D both took a piece. And liked it.)</p>
<p>[Edit: Clam note:]
[Horn</a> History 4](<a href=“http://www.hornplanet.com/hornpage/museum/history/horn_history4.html]Horn”>Horn History 4)</p>
<p>Hops is a vine, which tastes mighty fine
The cone of the flower is what gives it its power.</p>
<p>People,
Reliable sources state that calamari is fried rubberbands.</p>
<p>BTW, when did Dr. Seuss join CC?</p>
<p>(taking a much needed break from working)</p>
<p>But binx, WHAT did they like? Was it the breading? Just being fried? Or the vicarious thrill of grossing you out? Did it have a taste or texture that was particularly appealing?</p>
<p>Thank you jym626! FINALLY a reliable answer with substance!</p>
<p>Calamari, squid… their flavors bid
me run with a bun
toward meat from the seat
of a cow.</p>
<p>Haddock, scrod, while not so odd
bring oil to boil
in the pan, no can
what? no recipe? Then How?</p>
<p>To cook with no book
who knows brains from grains
in the pot it’s not
good food, low-brow.</p>
<p>Though tasty, it’s wasty
to chew but eschew
weird fish on a dish
you’d pitch anyhow.</p>
<p>Speaking of brains … haven’t had it for a long time, but I remember liking brains. Euphemistically called “Sweetbread!”</p>
<p>hmmm … just had my doubts about sweetbread and what it is, so I looked it up: (yes, this actually came up from a search for “sweetbread”</p>
<p>"Dear Cecil:
We were all sitting around lunch the other day and the question of what sweetbreads are came up. I voted for the thymus gland, but I was tremendously outnumbered by votes for the pancreas. Other suggestions included the brain, salivary gland, and even some sort of reproductive organ. I won’t comment on the mental status of the person giving the latter suggestion, but you may feel free to do so. --M.K., Baltimore</p>
<p>Dear M.:
Boy, nothing like a little light conversation to improve the digestion. As it happens, you and the pancreas bloc are both right. There are two kinds of sweetbreads: stomach sweetbreads (also known as heart or belly sweetbreads), which are an animal’s pancreas, and neck (AKA throat or gullet) sweetbreads, an animal’s thymus gland. (The animal in question can be a hog or calf or just about any other large mammal, I gather.) They’re called sweetbreads for the obvious reason that if you called them thymus glands or whatever you couldn’t give the damn things away. The art of euphemism goes back a long way.</p>
<p>–CECIL ADAMS"</p>
<p>From [The</a> Straight Dope: What are sweetbreads really?](<a href=“http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_055a.html]The”>http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_055a.html) so as not to be accused of plagiarism.</p>
<p>On Eating Calamari</p>
<p>My husband will eat anything; My rebel daughter naught.
My husband once turned something down, but what? I have forgot.</p>
<p>On braving calamari I can only this conclude:
I told my daughter not to eat, while my husband just heard, “food!”</p>
<p>Oh! NOW I understand! It’s a test to see how far someone will go in randomly eating anything! Got it!</p>
<p>Calamari:</p>
<p>I spent my 10th grade year living with a family in Catalunya, outside of Barcelona. </p>
<p>On my very first day with them, the whole extended family came for a large lunch. I gathered – most of the conversation was in Catalan, which I didn’t understand at all yet, but every once in awhile someone would remember to speak to me in Spanish, which I theoretically but not actually understood – that one of the items on the menu was going to be “calamares”. I had no idea what that was, but managed to look it up in a dictionary, whereupon I concluded that I must have heard wrong, since I couldn’t imagine anyone serving anything so awful as squid. It was completely outside of my (relatively sophisticated, for a 15-year-old in 1970) frame of cultural reference. I considered myself an adventuresome eater, but not THAT adventuresome. I was very anxious (what if I HADN’T heard wrong?).</p>
<p>When we were finally seated, I recognized the food on the table about as well as I recognized the words in the conversation: not much. I was trying my best not to show fear. I probably wasn’t succeeding too well at that, but I was not actually crying, which was good enough, given how I felt.</p>
<p>There was only one thing on the table that I recognized as edible. More than that, even – familiar, comforting. Never my own favorite food, but my sisters’ favorite: fried onion rings. Thank heavens!</p>
<p>I took several. I took a bite. It was NOT an onion ring. But – absent the surprise – it was pretty good.</p>
<p>My introduction to calamari.</p>
<p>My kids grew up on it, by the way, in myriad forms.</p>
<p>YOUR KIDS GREW UP ON CALAMARI???</p>
<p>Mine had some kind of panic attack when we changed to (gasp!) non-organic apple juice. And we’ll never do that again, will we? ;)</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, I am so glad it is now officially “the luncheon hour” so that, like GreyDad, I can break away from my work-a-day toil and relax here with some idle chatter. How “chill-axing” (as my darling D said last night. As in “Oh Mom! quit asking me about the Trig final. I’m chill-axing.”).</p>
<p>greydad–my youngest (kindergarten) is actually researching calamari–okay definitely on big bro’s clam success coat tails…but he is super gifted so I’m confident in his talent–so as soon as he has some results I’ll be sure to update this thread.</p>
<p>gee hope you’re still waiting here–doesn’t work just get in the way?</p>
<p>Yes. Calamari fried, stewed, grilled, stuffed, and paella-ed. They regard it as comfort food.</p>
<p>For some reason I never understood, my daughter has NEVER – not even as an infant – liked any kind of processed fruit. No juice of any kind – organic or not – no jam, no applesauce, no raisins, no fruit roll-ups, no blueberry pancakes, no pie (other than pumpkin or pecan). At restaurants, she has to order dessert specially without the drizzle of berry sauce that accompanies approximately 75% of the restaurant desserts in the world. She likes raw fruit in its original form just fine, though.</p>
<p>JHS - your D is weird. Has she looked at Reed?</p>
<p>(after taking a much needed break TO get some work done)</p>
<p>Okay. That almost explains it. But … how big were those tentacles to actually STUFF them?</p>
<p>lindz126: Need that research project done really soon; before we get off topic.</p>
<p>greydad–ok–just texted son–will get right back to you</p>