Spain. Octopus is a very common food in Spanish culture. In the Spanish region of Galicia, polbo á feira (market fair-style octopus) is a local delicacy. Restaurants which specialize or serve this dish are known as pulperías.
The best octopus comes from Portugal but octopus from Spain and Greece are also good. Size doesn't matter but cooking time will vary by size and variety; it is important for it to be tender.
Octopus growth rates are relatively high and they also have a short life cycle, making them suitable for commercial aquaculture. The major producer of Octopus are; China and Japan.
Other octopus species caught in Europe include the horned and musky octopuses (Eledone cirrhosa and Eledone moschata, respectively).
Countries that eat the most octopus are Korea, Japan and Mediterranean countries where they are considered a delicacy.
Octopus is a very popular ingredient in the Italian cuisine, especially in the south where towns are surrounded by beautiful coastlines and fresh seafood is abundant.
In Portugal octopus is eaten à lagareiro (olive oil miller style — roasted with potatoes, herbs, onion, garlic, and olive oil), or stewed with rice (arroz de polvo), as well as breaded and then deep fried, with rice and beans.
Nearly 3,000 tons of octopuses are caught in Italy every year. Considering their average weight, we estimate a loss of hundreds of thousands of specimens every year.
Native European Animals
Eurasian Lynx: Also called the northern lynx, this wild cat inhabits forests and mountains of European areas like Scandinavia, Poland, Slovakia, and smaller populations in other countries like France and Europe. Polar Bear: Polar bears are found in Norway and Greenland.
The Greeks have been eating octopus since ancient times, and it's still on the menu of the country's many psarotavernes, or fish taverns.
There are many octopus species that can be found in South Australia's marine parks. A popular one is the Maori, which as its name suggests, is found in the waters around New Zealand as well as southern Australia.
Traditional Portuguese cooking makes very good use of octopus as one of its favorite seafood ingredients. Because of its other-wordly looks and long tentacles covered in suckers, the octopus is often a creature that inspires a certain dose of intimidation to those who aren't used to seeing it on a plate of food.
The Common Sydney Octopus is found on intertidal rocky shores and in the ocean.
The Moroccan octopus stands out for its excellent quality, which is determined by feeding on clams and crustaceans. Our Dakhla octopus, fished and frozen daily with artisanal techniques, is the Moroccan octopus variant with the most prestige in the world.
The common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) is a mollusc belonging to the class Cephalopoda. Octopus vulgaris is one of the most studied of all octopus species, and also one of the most intelligent.
Available wild-caught, these marine dwelling cephalopods are found right around the Australian coast, from shallow tidal pools to depths of over 3,000m, though generally caught closer inshore among seagrass and on muddy, sandy or reefy bottoms at less than 200m on the continental shelf.
The laughing kookaburra is Australia's national symbol. The kookaburra is a brown-colored bird, about the size of a crow. The male is easily distinguished from the female by the blue hues on his wing feathers and darker blue on his tail feathers.
Europe's rich agricultural and industrial diversity has made the continent a center of trade and commerce for centuries. It is centrally located between the two other “Old World” continents, Africa and Asia.
The brown bear is the largest predator still living on the continent of Europe. They can reach a weight of between 150 and 370 kg depending on age, sex and season.
Pulpo gallego, or Galician-style octopus, is a popular tapa (appetizer) served all over Spain today. It originated in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia where octopus (pulpo in Spanish) is a specialty and a common catch for local fishermen.
Polpo in Italian Food. Technically polpo (meaning octopus in Italian) is a solo, seafaring cephalopod with eight tentacles lined with suction cups used to hunt pray at night.
OCTOPUS, ALSO KNOWN AS PULPO, IS A CEPHALOPOD harvested and highly-prized among many fishing communities worldwide. Fished from the white sands off the Canary Islands, the warmer waters here yield a naturally smaller and sweeter-tasting species than those found in Asian waters.
In South Australia, octopus is primarily caught as retained bycatch using baited pot methods targeting rock lobsters. They are also caught in a new developmental fishery that targets octopus using unbaited pots, but also in bottom trawl, gillnet and haul seine fisheries.
Many people think calamari dishes are made from octopus, when in fact calamari is actually made from a type of squid.
Yanagidako is a cleaned and fully cooked octopus and is entirely edible. The tentacles can be sliced thin and are quite tender and tasty. The skin has a pleasing red color while the meat is a creamy white. Sliced or diced yanagidako can be easily added to salads, ceviche, soups, and sushi preparations.