Dr. Bill, first, Happy New Year! Second, I think you took the wrong tactic in your dinner with your parents in Chicago, where you prepared squid and only two of you ate it. I had a similar dinner, with my Chinese room mate; we prepared an octopus tentacle. I had dived in Hood Canal, and we wrestled an octopus into the 20 man raft, cut off a tentacle, and then tossed it back to grow a new one. The tentacle was over four feet long, and I got about half of it. Well, we cooked it up in two forms--as a chowder and as fried tentacle. We called the chowder "clam chowder" and the fried tentacle "scallops." Everyone had some, and really enjoyed it. About half the twenty or so guests were Chinese students at Oregon State University, and the others American friends.
One American gal had come up from California with her Chinese boyfriend. After dinner, some of the Chinese guys who know about the octopus started teasing me about my "clam chowder" and "scallops." Finally, I had to say when the teasing got intense if everyone knew what was going on? This gal said that no, she didn't know what was going on. So I told her that it wasn't clam and scallops that she ate--it was octopus. "I ate OCTOPUS!" was her response...in a load voice. She was aghast! I felt really bad until my room mate told me that she would have to get used to it if she was to continue dating the Chinese guy--a bit of culture shock.
Anyway, calling them "clam chowder" and "scallops" made it easier on some to enjoy the meal. I had to cut off those 1" diameter suckers on the tentacles, and then beat the hell out of the meat before breading it and frying it. But it tasted good.
Again, Happy New Year,
John