Reader: Fried calamari is a simple dish, but very tough to do right

Yesterday Lori Midson served up a picture of some abysmal fried calamari, which a reader quickly pegged as coming from Odyssey Italian Bistro. But it could have come from so many other places that treat calamari just as abysmally...

By Patricia Calhoun

September 19, 2012

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Yesterday Lori Midson served up a picture of some abysmal fried calamari, which a reader quickly pegged as coming from Odyssey Italian Bistro.

But it could have come from so many other places that treat calamari just as abysmally.

And which places are those? Says AceRanchero:

Too numerous to mention. Though the pictured dish is eerily familiar I can't remember where I had it. I recall abysmally dry bits with virtually no taste. Some grease would actually have been welcomed.

This is a simple dish but very tough (pun intended) do get right. So why do restaurants feel the need to offer it? Because folks keep ordering and, I suspect, don't really know the good from the bad. Best bet? Get it where the house has the good sense to offer it prepared another way, such as a sweet/sour sauté or stir fried with garlic and chiles. (Oh, now, where was it that I had it that way? Zengo? Parallel Seventeen?)

Help Ace out: What restaurant has the good sense to offer calamari in a better preparation?

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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