Little snack… big adventure??

There are relatively few things that I won’t eat (or at least try)–just ask my closest friend Claire, who I once dragged to Miya’s Sushi in Stamford, Connecticut just so we could eat their “invasive species” sushi dinner–so when, the other day, I was wandering around Life Supermarket and came across a little package of what looked like tiny purple squid in the seafood section, I was immediately intrigued.

I love seafood, including squid and octopus, and whatever momentary hangup I might have had about the “weirdness” of eating tiny squid like popcorn was something I shoved aside. I bought the little Styrofoam tray, discovered it included a little packet of honey mustard hidden underneath, and started popping them into my mouth.

These things have an interesting textural contrast–there’s just the slightest bit of rubberiness from the fact that they are squid, but there is also a tiny bit of a cartilaginous crunch from their midsection, and then a bit of quasi-liver flavor/texture from their interiors. The honey mustard is an excellent addition, for what it’s worth–it’s a great contrast.

I didn’t know what these little squiddies were called after I plowed the whole container into my gaping maw, so I did some Googling and discovered that these were in fact Watasenia scintillans, more commonly known as “firefly squid.” They have that name because they are apparently bioluminescent and appear in the springtime to spawn before disappearing into the deep for the rest of the year (I kind of wondered if these inspired the Stardew Valley “moonlight jellies,” actually…).

As I was doing this research, I found this fascinating Atlas Obscura page explaining far more about these little creatures, including this particularly intriguing tidbit:

“There is little artificial light on the ocean [at Toyama Bay] from midnight to early morning, so the blue light of firefly squid appears even more beautiful in the darkness,” says Masaki Kobayashi, a representative from the Hotaruika Museum in Namerikawa. Every once in a while, thousands of firefly squid will beach themselves on the shore, bathing the coastline in electric blue.

Well! That’s something I have to see for myself! So stay tuned… I am going to see these bioluminescent squid in person, and I will eat my weight in them before I fly home.