Squidding

From Taiwan Pics

From Taiwan Pics

From Taiwan Pics

From Taiwan Pics

That night when we returned back to Magong, I called up a doctor friend of my grandfather’s who lived in the town. He was delighted to hear from me and invited us out to a fancy seafood dinner. Through the courses of seaweed, crab, squid, sea urchin, and pumpkin noodles, Dr. Steven asked us if we’d ever been squid fishing. Aaron had just told me earlier that he wanted to do that, so we said we were in.

Living on a small island definitely has its perks, and Dr. Steven seemed to know everyone there and found us a boat to join for a night of squid fishing. Riding on the boat was like one big party. Everyone was young and was definitely there to have a good time. The boat crew lit up our boat with some bright bright lights and sank some more lights into the water to attract the squid. We were given some poles and taught how to sink and cast our lines. Every now and then, I would hear a roar of excitement from somewhere on the boat as someone would catch a squid. The boat crew immediately cleaned and then chopped up the fresh squid and served it up, sashimi style complete with wasabi and soy sauce.

Aaron and I thought that we were casting the lines exactly as the boat crew guy but did not catch one thing. Occasionally, we would see trumpet fish swimming at the surface of the iridescently clear water. After a while of a bounty-less journey, the boat crew finally threw in some real nets to catch some squid. The nets were the secret weapon and soon the crew was pulling in thousands of these slimy rocket-shaped nasty things that stained everything black with their fear-induced ink splatter.

Ick.

Have I mentioned that I'm a vegetarian? And there is nothing tempting about sinking my teeth into one of these suckers. I was definitely in the minority on that ship, because soon hundreds of squid took a hot bath with hot sauce and were served over noodles to all the passengers on the ship. No thank you, no thank you.

Aaron ate a couple, and our buddy Dr. Steven couldn't get enough of them. He even convinced the cook to let him take a baggie of squid and noodles home for breakfast. Yummy.