[2] Noodles or rice are cooked and placed in a bowl and topped with salmon eggs and other ingredients.
When served, the squid appears lifeless until soy sauce, or any other sodium-rich liquid, is applied.
[3][4] The dish, based on the traditional Japanese dish "ika-don", was renamed to "odori-don" when the sushi restaurant Ikkatei Tabiji in Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture began serving the squid whole, as opposed to slicing it as was previous prepared.
[5] Although the squid seems to be momentarily alive, the phenomenon is a result of adding soy sauce, which contains sodium chloride.
An increased concentration of sodium ions cause neurons adjacent to muscles in the tentacles to fire (see action potential).