101 in 1001: Eating Sea Urchin from the Sea

Mike and I have watched a LOT of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. We love Bourdain’s snarky yet insightful commentary on all of the incredible places he visits. Since moving to Spain, we’ve tried to adopt his do-anything attitude, which includes trying everything we can and going on adventures to find the best, the freshest, and the most notable foods of this area.

One thing that really caught our attention was Bourdain’s Naples episode where he ate sea urchin STRAIGHT from the ocean and raved about it. Well…we wanted to do that too, so I put it on my 101 in 1001 list.

Yesterday, we went to one of the beaches within walking distance from our home and went hunting for some sea urchin!

We went during low tide so we would have a better chance of finding the creatures in one of the many tide pools, and we were successful! I was the first to spot a pool with many sea urchins who looked ripe for the picking.

Of course, when I hunt for sea urchin, I must look stylish.

Victory!! I was so proud of myself for plucking my first one out of the water! The glove definitely helped so I could get a better grip without puncturing myself. I only plucked 5 out of the tide pool so I wouldn’t decimate the population in that particular neighborhood.

While we didn’t eat the sea urchin right then and there, we brought them back home and dove right into preparing them so they would be as fresh as possible. If you find yourself in possession of a sea urchin, follow these steps. I used help from this video on youtube so I kinda knew what I was doing.

As for the taste, it was creamier than other roes that I’ve had. It definitely tasted fresh from the sea–a little briny, but not overwhelmingly fishy. Was it as awesome as I was expecting? Not really, because my expectations were probably unattainably high. But the satisfaction of capturing, cutting open and preparing something completely foreign to me was amazing.

Would we eat uni again? Absolutely! I think I’d try making it into a sauce next time, since I once had something similar at a local restaurant and it was delicious.

Besides our scavenge for sea urchin, we also picked up quite a few mussels.

While they were smaller than we’re used to getting at the market here, they were just as delicious.

Overall, we were really slap-happy over how fun and simple (and free) our meal was. It is always exhilarating to try new things, and we got some seriously good, seriously fresh food out of it. It’ll definitely be experiences like this that we’ll remember the most from living here, and it’ll be opportunities like this this that we’ll miss the most when we’re back home.

Have you ever scavenged and prepared your own seafood? Would you give sea urchin a try straight from the ocean?

Twenty-Five

Today, I am officially twenty-five. Smack dab in my mid-twenties. Honestly, I never thought it would happen to me. Allow me to be dramatic for a sec.

When I was in high school, 25 seemed lightyears away. I imagined that I would be a rockstar moviestar big Hollywood writer by now with millions and mansions to spare. Ha! In my lesser fantasies, I was at least as glamorous as the Friends cast, with a nice NYC apartment that apparently paid for itself and a gaggle of friends who could pop by at any second to make life interesting. Um…no.

Instead, I’m married and I have a very, very good life. It’s not super glamorous like I pictured it would be, but I’m happy, and completely head-over-heels in love with my husband. We are embarking on a crazy-awesome journey together this year and I couldn’t be more excited to grow and challenge myself in a new country with Mike by my side.

I’ve gone through quite a lot of changes over the last couple of years, but especially within the last year. Marriage has made me stop and really focus on what I want my future to look like. I have a more realistic grasp on how this real-world thing works by now, so I put together a 101 in 1001 list. For those of you who may not be familiar with it, it is a list of 101 little and big goals that you would like to achieve in 1001 days.

Hopefully this list will make me a stronger & more knowledgable person. Hopefully the adventures will bring me closer to my husband. Hopefully you guys will get a kick out of the posts that result from my experiences, trials, failures and successes.

101 in 1001

The list is also in my top navigation bar, now! Link to your own 101 in 1001 list in the comments if you have one!