Buying Squid

Two of my students want to lead their class in a squid dissection for their lesson on cephalopods. As a result, I spent the day in Chinatown, watching the New Year's Parade, eating dim sum, and shopping for squid.

The streets were packed.

I'd never been to a fish market before, being vegetarian. I'm not normally squeamish - I loved looking at the fish that I brought into class - but I must admit the fish markets were a little gross.

When you buy weird stuff for your classroom, it's best to find a place to buy it where the employees speak English. There is no universal language for "whole squid with all their organs."

The first place we went into had ENORMOUS squid! They must have been about 18 inches long, not including tentacles. At first I thought I'd buy seven, one for each group in the class. I quickly realized that would cost a fortune. So then I told them to give me two. As they lifted the second squid, it fell apart, so I changed my mind again and asked for just one. Then I realized they had been gutted and were no use to me, and so I said, "Never mind!" and left, two very confused Chinese fish sellers smiling after me.

Luckily, the employees at the next place we found spoke some English, and I was able to buy two more-or-less intact, reasonably-sized (maybe 12 inches each) squid. This fish market was on Mulberry just off of Canal, in case any of you NYC science teachers out there need a squid referral...