Dancing squid bowl dish in Hakodate

8/24/11 - Video and account were down for a while due to a bogus copyright claim. I'm glad it's back up so I can share this weird experience with everyone!

A seafood bowl I ate in Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan. It had salmon roe and seaweed and some other things, with the highlight being the "dancing" squid on top.

Dancing squid dishes seem to be at many restaurants in Hakodate, but this particular one may have been the only one with this bowl set. The place was located in the seafood restaurant arcade across the parking lot from Hakodate Station if anyone is interested.

Edit: I added some information in a reply comment but it's now buried somewhere. The basic idea behind the sodium in the soy sauce causing the legs to move has been covered in the comments, but there's still some question as to whether or not it's officially "dead" at the time of serving. The brain is probably still in the body, but a significant part of its nervous system, the giant axon, I believe extends into the mantle, which has been cut. I'm not an expert on squids so I can't really come to a definite conclusion about that.
As you can see in the beginning, it's not moving at all when it's brought out so I assume that signals around the body have stopped, whereas a fresh intact squid out of water would constantly move around. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's "dead" but it seems to me that it's at least incapacitated.

Here's an explanation of a similar occurrence using frog legs:
http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/12/21/how-twitching-frog-legs-work-a-litt...

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Hakodate
• dancing
• squid
• seafood
• dish
• Hokkaido
• Japan
• イカ
• 丼
• 函館市

[THISCHANNEL8D]

Tumblr was here.

[choeater]

Its already dead. The salt in the soy sauce is what makes the muscles of the squish react so violently.

[3milesofbadroad]

@ONLYUSEmeKLAW  i've been to school, and im pretty familiar with the types of amusement medieval pesants enjoyed - such as cuttin pig's head off and watching it die. not alle the medieval people were knights in armor :)

[ONLYUSEmeKLAW]

@3milesofbadroad wtf does that mean, it being "MEDIEVAL"? do you even know what that word means, or are you just talking out your ass. is this squid clad in knights armor or something? is it weilding weaponry? didnt you go to fucking SCHOOL? i learned that in elementary school, so you must be like 5?

[3milesofbadroad]

@ONLYUSEmeKLAW even whem its dead this sort of amusement is at least MEDIEVAL. Its really a depressing sight, whether the squid is aive, dead, drugged, incapacitated or something....

this is supposed to be fun?

[BedazzleGlitterGal]

@ONLYUSEmeKLAW ecxcuse me but read the uploaders info about the video.. its not dead juse incapacitated! you should get over yourdelf and get your facts straight!

[ONLYUSEmeKLAW]

@BedazzleGlitterGal that squid is dead. maybe you should get your facts straight before you act like you know anything next time.

[BedazzleGlitterGal]

This makes me so sad., it breaks my heart! I love aquatic life .. poor squid. .squid have the biggest eyes of all marine life and are intelligent creatures. , they dont deserve such inhumane treatment.

[99str3ngth99]

you cant get fresher than that

[Blastulationzine]

I just fucking love that music in the background!!!

[tangent461]

@1990loyale great now theres SQUID WALKERS!?!? lol

[zeonmx]

@ordinaryweirdo

Why would anyone want to eat something that is pounded with grease and fried with grease oil, and coated with MORE grease?