Octopus, Then

First Find Your Octopus, Then Thrash lt...

THERE are plenty of octo puses in Noumea’s market at present—this being the season when they are easily found in reef holes at low tide.

Even so, they are bringing 3/to 4/- a lb. because many people in New Caledonia look on them as a great delicacy.

Preparation of an octopus for the table is a muscle developing job as it entails thrashing the beast against a rock, preferably immersed coral which is glass-hard, for from half an hour to an hour. With out this, you might as well serve up a dish of plastic garden hose.

When boiled, the flesh is white and tender and tastes like crayfish. The skin and suckers easily slip off the cook ed flesh.

Octopus can be served up in many ways. It may be chopped up and served with “vinaigrette” sauce of vinegar oil and garlic; or chopped up and served with mayonnaise or the various sauces that go with crayfish.

One of the best ways of presenting octopus is in Coquil les St. Jacques—the flesh being minced and mixed with bread crumbs, seasoning and garlic, nut into imitation shells and baked in the oven. The one pirtured made a much-^ppre

dated curry.

Fred Dunn.