If you’ve ever been to a sushi restaurant with me you’d know I love sea urchin (“uni” in Japanese). The part of the sea urchin that you actually eat is the ovaries, called corals or roe, and it’s a culinary delicacy in many parts of the world. It’s hard to describe the taste but to me it’s like savory clean ocean water if that makes sense. Some people describe the taste as “umami” which is the fifth taste sensation school didn’t teach you about (the other four are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter).
Usually I eat the uni Japanese style as sashimi or regular sushi but yesterday I stopped by the Halal Market and picked up some amazing olive oil and instantly remembered this episode of No Reservations where Anthony was in Greece and had some sea urchin. Here’s the clip…
(skip to about 1:40 to see what I’m talking about)
Here’s the olive oil I got from the market
And here’s that amazing sea urchin in olive oil, fresh lemon juice, cilantro and a little sea salt.
Eaten on toasted flat bread. Fucking amazing!
Dinner last night at Avocado was like a multi cultural club. Mushroom enchiladas and mango salsa from Mexico, beer from Japan, soju from Korea and sea urchin in olive oil from Heaven…
