Is cheap calamari made of pig rectum? If the new, gross food rumor on the web is to be believed, you should take care in where and how you order the delicious, love them or hate them rings of squid, commonly served battered and with marinara for dipping sauce.
The calamari made of pig rectum rumor is a common theme in an age of bargain cuisine, and even the skeptics among us can’t help but give pause when confronted with a generous and reasonably priced helping of seafood in all you can eat, buffet or low-end restaurant settings. Is that trough of crab legs really crab legs, or some amalgam of seawater, driftwood and mutant fish carefully crafted into stick form for crazy-cheap California rolls?
How the calamari pig anus rumor got its legs remains to be seen, but the web has been buzzing about the presence of swine rectum in otherwise edible foodstuffs since the strange tale began to circulate — and it’s not hard to see why people are easily able to accept the claim. After all, shape, springiness, form — all seem like they may be interchangeable between the anus of a pig and the tentacle of a squid.
(Be right back, becoming a vegetarian.)
According to Slate , however, the calamari pig rectum tale is a classic urban legend, and Gothamist adds:
“In the end, [Ben] Calboun [of NPR] was unable to find anyone who would admit to any knowledge of pork rectum being passed off as calamari, but many people in the restaurant industry told him, essentially, anything’s possible. After listening to the whole segment, which we highly recommend, we’re desperately trying to forget the last time we had calamari.”
“And moving forward, we have a hunch our disgust for pig rectum is going to override our desire for calamari. But be sure to listen all the way to the end, because Calhoun goes all the way with this thing—”eating our way to the truth”—to see if rectum can indeed pass the calamari taste test. On second thought, maybe you really don’t want to know.”
While we can’t prove calamari is never made from the rectum of pork castoffs, the tale seems likely cut from whole cloth.