A little story about squid

Seafood is great.  Everyone in our house loves fish and seafood.  Mussels, oysters, shrimp, salmon, tilapia, tuna.

Brian decided this fall when he took over all of the cooking that he would make more Asian dishes and use More Seafood.  He  finally purchased some wild caught squid from United Noodle last week and decided to make a rice and squid dish in a spicy asian sauce.

The sauce smelled wonderful when I got home.   Rich and savory    The rice was perfectly done.   Lucky parents that we there was no complaining when we sat down to dinner.  .

The squid was probably sliced into rings the circumference of large rubber bands and was rather thick – maybe the size of your pinkie finger.  Downside – it was frozen, so it was a bit on the chewy side.  Downside – daddy cooked it in the sauce a touch to long.   Upside – we like seafood right?

Joel took a bite,  chewed and started choking.  He gagged.   Then he coughed up a little bit of squid and complained about it having a stringy part.  A little mild whining and crying.  Recovered.  We moved on.

Seconds later, Augie is chewing the squid and starts to cough.   Then he starts to gag.   Then he resumes coughing.   “Are you choking?”  Daddy asks.   “ARE YOU CHOKING?”  mommy yells.   As he attempts to suck in air we can hear the Giant Life Threatening Obstruction in his throat.   Quiet panic ensues.   I stood up and tried to control myself  from running over, turning him upside down and shaking it out of him.    He is simlutansously trying to get a breath and cough.   He finally coughs and out spurts a chunk of squid across the table.   I landed conveniently on my fork.

The dinner hour is suspended due to hysterical crying .

Augie, the poor child, was totally freaked out.   Scared the beejesus out of himself.     He was so upset I took him down in the basement and  let him cry the fear out of himself.     Joel came down shortly after and reminded me that he too had choked and didn’t I notice that he was also was crying.

Once we got back upstairs, I found Brian sitting in his chair looking rather dejected.    Augie and Joel asked for salami and cheese sandwiches with mayo.  Brian and I sat there looking at our squid.   Then we looked at each other.   Salami and cheese sandwiches all around.

Augie:  ”I am never eating squid the rest of my life”.

Joel:  ”I almost died eating squid”

Kristin:  ”Squid will always remind me of my children choking”.

Brian:   “Squid is best left to the professionals”

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