See video. See video of an udon bowl with a squid. See video of udon bowl with a squid that flails its legs when soy sauce is added. Get a million hits on YouTube. Good video.
What you don’t want to do is read some of these comments, one in particular attributing that this dish to how Japanese people are inherently sadistic judging by their actions from WWII. Oh, Internet.
As to the science of how it works, via CBS News:
“To understand the science behind what exactly is going on here, you must think of the soy sauce as jolting the squid’s tentacles with very small amounts of electricity. The energy lies within ions contained in the sauce’s high sodium content. These ions are used in cells to create voltage differences. Because the squid is served fresh, the cells inside are still active and when the sodium is applied, the signals across the nerve cell membranes are temporarily reactivated causing the squid to “dance.”
Besides, silly YouTube commenters: Everyone knows that if you want to eat live squid, you have to go to Korea. For what it’s worth, this video doesn’t have enough pretty vegetables on the plate for the video to go viral, though. Or cats playing the piano.
