The subject I'm interested in is about very unusual, offbeat foods from around the world, including Aus, that is foods you or I most probably won't see at typical Aussie grocery stores or local restaurants.
Currently there doesn't appear to be anyone or place, specialising in serving up truly unusual culinary delights in Australia, such as spiders, flies, crickets, jellyfish, weird veg and the odd fermented fish dish, that have pride of place where those foods are consumed and loved.
So, here's the first subject, Sea Urchins.
Has anyone tried fresh, live sea urchins, eaten off the rocks? And you can't get it any fresher than that.
The location I barely recall is at or near Happy Valley, Caloundra, Queensland and they converge on the rocky crevices of shallow pools during certain months of the year, which I unfortunately forgot. Sorry.
It's no different to eating fresh oysters on the rocks with only a shucking knife. It's totally fun and kind of wild.
When a sea urchin is carefully pry ed open, without being spiked with its' sphere of very sharp quills that cover around the entire animal, it's the orangie flesh or liver that is consumed and discard the remainder.
Only go for the young'n's that have very dark brown quills, almost black. They're the most flavoursome. They're about 3" to 3 1/2" in diameter.
The flavour of the older ones become less sharp, perhaps bland and the liver is a yellow colouration. The body generally appears motlier and lighter colouration and are around 3 1/2" to 4" diameter.
The taste is hard to describe as it is one all its' own, rather in the acquired taste category as it does have a strong flavour, which I'm very fond of. Perhaps blue vein cheese might come close, with the consistency of junket, yeah.
Oh, and it's packed with iron to.
If you manage to find some, try this>
Mix in a dash of sake (Japanese rice wine) in a small bowl with approx 50g of fresh sea urchin.
Eat with boiled medium grained rice, then get it into your laughing gear. Mmmmmm...
Sensational tucker, fit for gods.
Enjoy!
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2 comments:
Welcome to the blogosphere!
Great subject by the way. I am adventurous and will have a go at eating most things. I think the most unusual thing I've ever eaten is probably echidna. It was TASTY. Or I've eaten scorpion once too. Crunchy.
Please write more! I'm Dying to here from your blog (i've even RSS it)!
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