Illustration: Vroni Von Manz
A Tale of Squid
This is the first official ‘Recipes for Volunteering' post, in that it was a recipe that formed part of my journey of volunteering in the food sector.
September 2016; I still remember the clawing hangover as I attended an event in Torino as a SFYN Terra Madre delegate at a lovely location called Toolbox Coworking. The hangover was due to staying up til 6ish at a club night, with a nice variety of music and food (of course), though we got home a tad later because we got a little bit lost and had a short sit down on the way home: Molly, from Ireland; Donald, a Scottish crofter.
Molly was very cool; she was confident and grounded, knew all the best artisan cheeses to sample at the outdoor market stalls, and I was excited to hear about the work she’d done with the Centre for Genomic Gastronomy. I couldn't have asked for a better roommate. Years later, my friend Mo, with whom I had volunteered on their mobile bike kitchen project, moved to Cork, and so I asked Molly via FB messenger if she knew anyone looking for a flatmate. Of course, Mo, their partner and dog all moved in with Molly. It's a small world; this food/earth/sea/sky/people world.
Anyway, the day after the party, I attended this wonderful workshop where we learned about paper-making, produced squid gyotaku prints, and then made squid ink calamari. It was part of the SFYN programme of events, and I believe it was the collaborative brainchild of Maham Rizvi and Eduard Pagès Rabal.
The Squid Inc workshop in the kitchen space at Toolbox Coworking
A squid ready for gyotaku printing in Torino
I am trying to remember at what stage Eduard and I had a conversation saying it'd be great to run this workshop in Scotland. Still, somehow, two years later, it happened, and as ‘Team Fish’ (myself, Eduard, Caroline, Paula and Amy), we did two events on a shoestring: one in Glasgow at the CCA, one in Edinburgh at Quay Commons. These events became case studies for my research project for MSc Gastronomy.1
Previously, I didn't know Eduardo-san very well, but by the end of the weekend, we were definitely friends. I recall we cooked a pasta dish with greens foraged from the Water of Leith; found all the fun paper-making history at the National Museum of Scotland; made scathing judgements on some of the art at Hidden Door that year; ran two workshops in two cities; and discussed his plans to make some 'slow' toiletries/fragrances whilst chuckling at how everything was becoming slow nowadays; Slow Food; slow travel; slow fucking.
The next time I was in Italy, I went to Terra Madre as part of a large group for our closing 'field trip' for the MSc. Although we were a very close-knit group, it was a weird, transitory time for many. Despite the full moon, honey tastings, and dancing to Kate Bush in the giallo bathroom, I sensed it wasn't as bewitching an experience as the one I had in Torino in 2016.
Stevie’s Moon Dance, Torino
I try to recall the last time I talked to Eduard; it may have been one of the lockdowns whilst he was swamped working as a pharmacist in Catalonia during the Covid outbreak, or possibly in 2022 when I had planned to go to Italy but had to cancel. It feels surprising to me that it may have been so long since we chatted. I know we, and other people I met during this week in 2016, still (predominantly passively) follow each other's journeys on social media despite not regularly uttering phrases such as ‘How are you?’ or ‘What have you been up to recently?’ 2
And I know we still care…
Recipe for Squid Ink Calamari
Sourcing
At the time of the events, the squid was considered quite a sustainable product to consume within Scotland, and in fact, we had hoped to improve participants filleting skills to make it an alternative to less sustainable fish choices. However, it would be remiss to write about this recipe without pointing out that European Squid seems to have been downgraded by the Marine Stewardship Council’s Good Fish Guide since the last events. For me, and for the purposes of these Substack posts, this recipe3 is a moment in time, a memory, inspiration or experience. If I wanted to support the work of Open Seas but still emulate the spirit of the recipe now, I’d probably cut thin batons of courgette to fry in the squid ink batter.
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