Today it's tako time! (And we're having a giveaway, so make sure to read the whole post!)

But... don't get that confused with tacos. There are no tortillas to be seen around here.

When we say tako, we mean octopus.

Yum.

Tako is almost always cooked before eating; unlike many fish that are offered raw, octopus is cooked and brined before it is served as sushi. It's rarely ever sold whole outside of Japan. (We want to know, have you ever seen a whole octopus for sale? If you happen to come into possession of one, here's how to clean it.)

Unfortunately... octopus is not one of the more sustainable seafood options out there. Since Japan has a large octopus preparation industry, octopus from all over the world is exported into Japan, where it is prepared and frozen. Then it's re-exported back to other countries where there is a demand for octopus in sushi.

What does this mean for you? It means that it's really, really difficult to know where your octopus actually originated from... which is a big deal, because many countries do not have regulations in place for how they catch octopus, which means that it could potentially be very bad for the ocean.

However, it's not all bad... if you can get tako that you know came from a Spanish fishery, most of their octopus is caught with pots (like little traps that they put in the ocean), which is much less disruptive than bottom trawling. (Bottom trawling involves dragging a net across the floor of the ocean... which is bad for the environment and catches all sorts of additional sea life that they aren't aiming for.)

Morocco is starting to regulate their octopus fishing more, but it still may be a while before we can consider that to be a sustainable option.

Vietnam, Senegal, and Mauritania are all unregulated, so we don't recommend eating any octopus from those countries' fisheries, if you can help it.

In Hawaii, octopus is mostly caught by spearfishing or by lure-and-line, where a lure with many hidden hooks is used to snare octopuses when they pounce. There is very little bycatch associated with this technique. Plus on the bright side, octopuses are fast growing and produce numerous offspring. These traits, combined with a sustainable fishing method, make Hawaiian octopus a "Good Alternative." The same goes for octopuses caught in the Gulf of California.

So assuming you can get a sustainable source for your octopus... how does one eat it?

Since the octopus feeds on other sushi ingredients, like crab, lobster, and scallops, its diet makes it high in protein and gives it excellent flavor. Thus it's quite delicious as sushi. It has a very firm/chewy texture, and only the tentacles are used for sushi. Larger octopuses have thicker tentacles which are easier to slice for sushi.

Before it's made into sushi, octopus is boiled, which tenderizes and firms the flesh. Its gray skin turns burgundy, and its flesh whitens, so it’s also much more appetizing looking when cooked. The boiling is done slowly, over low heat, because rapid boiling toughens the meat. The cooked tentacles are then cut diagonally into thin 1/8-inch slices.

Octopuses are also sometimes eaten live... the tentacles chopped off of live octopus and eaten raw, while still moving. This is very dangerous, because the suckers can stick to your throat and you can choke to death if you don't swallow correctly. We don't recommend doing this.

Takoyaki (たこ焼き) literally translates to mean fried/grilled octopus. But really... they're OCTOPUS BALLS!

They are ball-shaped dumpling made from a batter that’s like a savory pancake batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan, known as a takoyakiki (たこ焼き器). It's a special pan, usually made from cast iron, with spherical indentations in it. Kind of like an aebleskiver pan.

Takoyaki are typically filled with diced octopus, tempura “scraps” (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion,