Calamari is poor man's abalone

Calamari fixed the way Jil described in San Francisco is what we call "poor man's abalone." Fixed that way, it tastes JUST like abalone steaks. But the price of abalone if you can even find it these days is sky high, and if you ever saw real abalone on a restaurant menu you'd faint at the price. Calamari steaks are affordable, and don't need pounding like abalone does. Both have to be cooked very quickly though or they will rubberize. We have family who dive for abalone out here on the west coast so I've cooked both abalone and calamari. If you cook the calamari right, you can barely tell the difference, and someone who never had abalone to compare probably could NOT tell tell the difference. Delicious!