From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
Also devilfish, water ghost. Any one of a number of cephalopods belonging to the mollusk family with, as the name indicates, eight "arms", each with two rows of suction cups. Some of the smallest and largest examples are found in the Pacific ocean off the North American coastline; the Octopus dofleini reaches up to 30 feet (9 m) long, while the Octopus micropyrsus is about 1⁄2 inch (1 cm) long. Mediterranean countries and Japan have the greatest appetite for octopus. Since this sea creature prefers to live in enclosed spaces, Italian and Japanese fishermen lower pots onto the seabed; once the octopuses set up house inside, the pots are hauled up with the catch. The eyes and viscera are removed before the chewy flesh of the arms and body are cut into chunks and eaten cold, hot or pickled, usually after tenderizing and lengthy cooking, but baby octopuses can be simply and briefly boiled or fried. The blue-black ink expelled as a defense by a fleeing octopus is often removed from the ink sac and used as a colorant in the preparation of various dishes.
