Boiled Atlantic Octopus 日式水煮章魚

茹で蛸 

「え、アフリカですか？」と思ったかもしれません。が、侮るなかれ。なんとモロッコ生まれのタコさんたちは、われわれ小市民が滅多なことでは口にすることができない、イセエビやアワビ、美味しいお魚さんなんかをパクパクと食べながらすくすくと育っているのです。だから、適度なしまりがあるけど身がやわらかい。しかも何もつけなくても旨みがあり、プリッとして食感もベリーグッドなのです。

Octopus is eaten as sashimi as well but, unlike other sashimi, it isn’t served raw but boiled. It is possible to eat raw octopus if it’s very fresh but you will rarely see raw octopus sold as sashimi even in Japan. Often at supermarkets, octopus is already boiled and even sliced for sashimi. 

Octopus is sourced from all over the world, with most of the product arriving from the Northwest coast of Africa.  It is then almost always processed in Japan, which is the hub of octopus preparation, freezing, and shipping. Octopus are short lived, and so do not accumulate the mercury the same way as large predatory fish with long life spans, and are high in protein.  Nutritionally, octopus are a fairly low calorie meal.  Ready to eat pre-cooked!  All you need to do is rinse and slice it up.

產章魚的地區很多，最有名的就是味道濃郁口感柔嫩的摩洛哥章魚，以體型口感稱王，是最高級品種。其他的像智利產的，墨西哥產的，印尼產的等等就比較次等。日本十分仰賴從摩洛哥和茅利塔尼亞等西非國家進口章魚，其中摩洛哥是非洲最大章魚供應商。