Orange cuttlefish

Orange cuttlefish
Traditional Chinese	鹵水墨魚
Simplified Chinese	卤水墨鱼
Literal meaning	soy-sauce stew cuttlefish
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin lú shuǐ mò yǘ Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping lou5 seoi2 mak6 jyu4

Orange cuttlefish or Orange squid is the most common English name used for the cuttlefish dish within Cantonese cuisine. It is one of the siu mei dishes, though it is not quite roasted. The dish is most commonly found in Southern China, Hong Kong and overseas Chinatowns.

Names

A cuttlefish or squid can be used interchangeably, though they both share the same Chinese food name (鹵水墨魚). It is also shortened most of the time to just (墨魚).

The name "Orange" has been used to distinguish it by color. The fruit orange does not have anything to do with the dish.

Cantonese cuisine

The orange color comes from the food coloring dye. Some flavors are added as the cuttlefish alone usually has little to no taste. It has a unique soft-crisp (爽, jyutping: song2) texture, generally not found in any other meat.

When served, it is usually sliced into tiny pieces. It comes with a black soy-sauce-based dipping gravy called (鹵水, jyutping: lou5 seoi2) that gives it a mildly salty flavor. The sauce is culturally accepted to have a Guangdong or Chaozhou origin.

See also

• Dried shredded squid