Holy crap, that was a good first try (calimari)

I tried to incorporate the suggestions I got - couldn't do the cornmeal one as i couldn't find wherever the hell my wife hid the cornmeal - but damn, it was (is) yum.

Calimari, dredged in a mix of flour, garlic salt, pepper and italian bread crumbs. Fried in peanut oil. I know H2S doesn't like to spend for peanut oil, but I use it so rarely it doesn't really matter.

Could use a little tweaking, but we're off to a damned good start.

..... it'll be right very soon.

The peanut oil is fine ..... just needlessly spendy, in my view. I reserve it for wokking. But, apart from cost, there's no reason not to use it for squid.

sea salt, do you think?

it tastes like a coarse tangy salt.

Large flat flakes that dissolve quickly for a 'bits of salt' effect rather than a vague salinity.

I could try that...

on edit: it's not sea salt, though, but it is large crystals.

okay, i don't suspect, i know, because it tasted too frickin' salty.

damn, i was hoping this would be easier than this. now it's becoming a quest. a pizza quest i can deal with - i've been on that for years. a duck quest too. but calimari? not quest-justifiable i'd think, but maybe it is. doesn't take much to screw this up.

Obsessions .... not so much (sez he who has many obsessions)

like a great pizza (pulled that off, finally), decent duck (nearly achieved), great chicken (got it), steak, etc., but beef jerky isn't much of a crowd pleaser and I'm pissed that it's harder than I thought it would be. I know I can buy spices, but I want to create my own flavorings, and it's a lot touchier than i thought. Part of what's messing me up is the disconnect between what i mix into the meat, and how it tastes later when it dries. certain flavorings seem to intensify, and others seem to wane, and I haven't quite figured out which are the intesifiers and which are the waners.

It's probably the engineer in me, but I like this crap to be predictable.

That's also the reason why I haven't smoked pot in 20 years. But that's another story.

It's Japanese style breadcrumbs and available almost everywhere (super markets, Trader Joe's, etc.). It's light, crispy and delicious with calamari or anything else!

it was the salty taste I was trying to capture - they seem to use something different than traditional salt or even sea salt.