Orange cuttlefish or Orange squid is the most common English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 name used for the cuttlefish

Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda . Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs....

 dish within Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese cuisine

Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and is one of 8 superdivisions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country...

. It is one of the siu mei

Siu mei

Siu mei is the generic name, in Cantonese cuisine, given to meats roasted on spits over an open fire or a huge wood burning rotisserie oven. It creates a unique, deep barbecue flavor that is usually enhanced by a flavorful sauce . Shops selling these meats are commonly found in Chinese-speaking...

 dishes, though it is not quite roasted. The dish is most commonly found in Southern China

Northern and southern China

Northern China and southern China are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions has never been precisely defined...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 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

Orange (fruit)

An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....

 does not have anything to do with the dish.

Cantonese cuisine

The orange color comes from the food coloring

Food coloring

Food coloring is a substance, liquid or powder, that is added to food or drink to change its color. Food coloring is used both in commercial food production and in domestic cooking...

 dye. Some flavors are added as the cuttlefish alone usually has little to no taste. It has a unique soft-crisp (爽, jyutping

Jyutping

Jyutping is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme...

: 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

Jyutping

Jyutping is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme...

: lou5 seoi2) that gives it a mildly salty flavor. The sauce is culturally accepted to have a Guangdong

Guangdong

Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

 or Chaozhou

Chaozhou

Chaozhou is a city in eastern Guangdong province of the People's Republic of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and the South China Sea to the southeast...

origin.