Hawaii Knife Life - daily use for work and play

oldmanwilly said:
Great pics, thanks for keeping this thread alive.

About the dried tako:
- how dry do you get it?
- Will it be like jerky, but presumably tougher?
- Do you smoke it at all?
- Am I asking to many questions?
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After catching one, you bite the eyes to dispatch it. After getting it home, you turn it inside out and remove its internals. Sometimes you save the ink bag to use if your serving it raw. In this case, I am drying it, so no need the ink.

You then "villi" the creature by repeatedly dripping it into a five gallon bucket with sea salt. This helps get the slime out, and causes the legs to curl. A lot of foam is created, and this can take a half hour or so.

After, you cut out the beak and eyes, then cut off each leg, and portion the body. I spread it out in direct sunlight with sea salt in my dry box. The amount of sunlight and length of time is determined by how dry you want it.

I dry ours enough to be able to easily separate in your mouth. It has a consistency of beef chunk jerky. It's absolutely delicious, and highly valued. It does not last long before it's all eaten.

There are other ways to prepare an octopus as well, but dried is my favorite. It is one of those snacks that pairs well with a good beer and friends.
 
MolokaiRider said:
After catching one, you bite the eyes to dispatch it. After getting it home, you turn it inside out and remove its internals. Sometimes you save the ink bag to use if your serving it raw. In this case, I am drying it, so no need the ink.

You then "villi" the creature by repeatedly dripping it into a five gallon bucket with sea salt. This helps get the slime out, and causes the legs to curl. A lot of foam is created, and this can take a half hour or so.

After, you cut out the beak and eyes, then cut off each leg, and portion the body. I spread it out in direct sunlight with sea salt in my dry box. The amount of sunlight and length of time is determined by how dry you want it.

I dry ours enough to be able to easily separate in your mouth. It has a consistency of beef chunk jerky. It's absolutely delicious, and highly valued. It does not last long before it's all eaten.

There are other ways to prepare an octopus as well, but dried is my favorite. It is one of those snacks that pairs well with a good beer and friends.
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great info, thank ya Sir.

how do y'all catch 'em...? I'm guessing it aint nets, rather some sort of special trap setup or spear maybe? I'm guessing if ya couldn't tell.
 
jbmonkey said:
great info, thank ya Sir.

how do y'all catch 'em...? I'm guessing it aint nets, rather some sort of special trap setup or spear maybe? I'm guessing if ya couldn't tell.
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No worries, I don't mind sharing some of what I know. Just don't ask me where my secret spots are lol.

There are a few methods, but traps don't work from what I have seen. These creatures are smart and can escape readily.

We use a Hawaiian sling three prong, or if you are good, just a piece of stainless steel flexible rod.

You free dive, looking for tell-tale signs and habitat. Once you find a hole, you poke around and agitate the area, with the hopes one is in the hole. If they are, they will eventually get pissed at your intrusion and grab the rod or spear. You then coax them out and grab them. Swim back to the surface, then bite them over the eyes to kill them quickly. You then place them on a T or stringer to your buoy.

Just gotta remember bigger fish want to eat it too. So keep your head on a swivel.
 
MolokaiRider said:
No worries, I don't mind sharing some of what I know. Just don't ask me where my secret spots are lol.

There are a few methods, but traps don't work from what I have seen. These creatures are smart and can escape readily.

We use a Hawaiian sling three prong, or if you are good, just a piece of stainless steel flexible rod.

You free dive, looking for tell-tale signs and habitat. Once you find a hole, you poke around and agitate the area, with the hopes one is in the hole. If they are, they will eventually get pissed at your intrusion and grab the rod or spear. You then coax them out and grab them. Swim back to the surface, then bite them over the eyes to kill them quickly. You then place them on a T or stringer to your buoy.

Just gotta remember bigger fish want to eat it too. So keep your head on a swivel.
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ahhhh...never would have guessed. great info thanks. learned a lot today. appreciated. so where are those secret spots at?😁

they bite with their beak while manhandling them? sure they ink squirt like heck. I never messed with one. seen them scuba diving years ago but never tried catching one.
 
Octopus are interesting creatures. I do spearfishing and I catch them eventually. I like them a lot, but once spotted, they are an "easy" catch... so I tend to focus on more valuable catches (difficult fish). It depens on the region but where I live I am allowed to catch one per day bigger than 500gr (which is too small for my liking if you ask me). I usually only get them if they are bigger than 2kg.

One trick to locate them is to focus on piles of empty shells, small rocks, etc. Some are leftovers from their eats, others are the result of digging their holes... and others, I believe, picked up from the sorroundings by the octopus for protection! Those piles stand up like a sore thum if the bottom is darker or sandy or just different.

When they feel threatened, they go into their hole, grab a few rocks and shells with the suction cups on their tentacles and creat a sort of a SHIELD at the entrance... So cool!

Never tried the octopus jerky... I guess it would be difficult to do here with just natural resources given the usual weather conditions!

Mikel
 
There is nothing like fresh seafood, and I LOVE octopus. Insanely jealous. My boy is currently stationed at Schofield, but I’ve only been out your way once, long before he was. Even though I’m in Florida, which ain’t bad, the natural beauty out there is phenomenal. Keep this thread alive!
 
Centermass said:
There is nothing like fresh seafood, and I LOVE octopus. Insanely jealous. My boy is currently stationed at Schofield, but I’ve only been out your way once, long before he was. Even though I’m in Florida, which ain’t bad, the natural beauty out there is phenomenal. Keep this thread alive!
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Thanks for the kind words, and also to your son for his service.

It is pretty yummy, although when served raw with the ink it takes a bit of courage getting over the texture.
 
MolokaiRider said:
Thanks for the kind words, and also to your son for his service.

It is pretty yummy, although when served raw with the ink it takes a bit of courage getting over the texture.
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A little bit of japanese tsuyu, sesame oil, some chopped spring onions, wasabi, then dunk the cut up small raw pieces of octopus in there. Yummmm

Can substitute tsuyu with shoyu or regular low sodium soy, but I find tsuyu taste the best. Can use chopped onions if you dont have spring onions.

You need a pretty sharp knife to cut raw squid/octopus, that stuff will put blades to the test!
 
POCEH KOCEB said:
Dergyll Dergyll Which part of the octopus is best to be used for this, please ?
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Hey someone adventurous! Respect man.

It's called takowasa, google it. Basically, you eat 90% of the octopus, so clean the inside, eyes, mouth, etc. Chop up the rest into bite size chunks the size of your fingernail; also get most of the slim off with some cleaning, but I dont mind a little slime haha. Make sure its fresh though, easy to nail your stomach with raw seafood 🤢

I've seen some Japs (while I was there) put raw eggs into the dunk sauce/marinade too.

Good luck! If I make it sometime I'll post some pics.
 
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