Octopus Salad

Octopus Salad

I was about to say that the first time I've eaten octopus was on a Greek island when I remembered that my late Grand Aunt in Singapore used to make us soups with this "lucky" hair-like weeds (fatt choy) and dried octopus. I shudder when I remember that so I'll just glaze through this and move on to Greece, si vous permettez.

I've been 3 times to Greece in the last 12-13 years and have visited a number of the islands near to and far from the Greek mainland. On one such trip, I was fortunate enough to be with a friend who's a good ouzo drinker. I'm not fond of alcohol so the ouzo wasn't the highlight, but I certainly stuck to the guy like glue in the evenings when he had his ouzo, as next to his table there would usually be this old Greek woman dressed all in black grilling bits of octopus on a hot charcoal fire. Octopus that arrived with the boats in the morning, that spent the day sun-tanning on top of roofs and chairs on the island and that in the evening ended up on the grill to accompany glasses of ouzo.

And yes, like a little dog I would be around to eat up those bits of free octopus.

Here in Italy, octopus or polpo is big. Usually served as an antipasta, you can find them quite easily at the fishmonger's and of course in the bigger supermarkets. I have been tempted to buy one and prepare it myself, but they are usually quite enormous and I have no intention of spending my week eating octopus no matter how much I like it. But surely the occasion will present itself one day.

In the meantime, I buy it in small portions just simply steamed. And then I will transform it into an Octopus Salad with the usual garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, shallots, balsamic vinegar etc. Very refreshing and serves as a good appetiser or starter.

And it wouldn't fail to bring me back to Greece.