Sushi Night

Last night I went out for sushi with some friends. I like to sit at the sushi bar and watch them prepare the food in front of me. While I enjoy sushi, I'm not especially adventurous. Usually I'll eat things like Hamachi (Yellow Tail), Maguro (Tuna), and Sake (Salmon). These are the more basic raw fish varieties over a ball of white rice. (The photo on the left are the things I usually eat). However, even though sushi is raw fish, my one rule is I never want to eat anything that I saw alive in the restaurant or worse, if it is still moving when served. This is exactly what my friends like to eat when we go for sushi.

These were alive just moments before I took these photos below:

Above left: Sweet Shrimp heads (with the eyes still on them). Above right: some fish that was swimming around and pulled out to be cooked in front of us...

Above: Sea Urchin. Although this one was not still moving last night, I've watched my friend eat the Sea Urchin before while the spines still twitch and move. Feeling utterly grossed out, I decided to seach the web for information on eating Sea Urchins, and lo and behold I found this on everything2.com:

"Sea Urchins are really not that bad, but it is a tad disgusting. In fact, it's kind of massaging to your hand, yet refreshingly gross. Here's how you can eat your own live sea urchin while it's still squirming:

Recommended Materials:
1. A large sharp knife, preferably over six inches long
2. One live sea urchin
3. A strong stomach and a steady heart

Turn the sea urchin upside-down so that the mouth is face up. It may be easier to put it on a large rock or cutting board. Using your large knife, cut directly down the center of the urchin, cutting it almost in half. Stop cutting when you've almost cut through the shell, called the test. The sea urchin should now be cut in half, but still connected.

Open the sea urchin so that you can view inside both halves. Now there will be an assortment of internal stuff inside, but on my particular species, we're looking for the yellow stuff. It's known as roe or "uni" in Japanese sushi bars. It's actually just the gonads of the urchin.

If you don't want to eat all that other junk, there's really only 2 ways to get around it. Either eat around it with the aid of chopsticks or your tongue, or splash it upside-down in the sea. That should clean out all the innards leaving the tasty roe, but will leave a salty flavor and may kill the urchin. (Remember, the whole fun in this is feeling and seeing the spikes move around while you suck out its insides)

Enjoy your live sea urchin!

TIP: If you want your sea urchin extra squirmy, splash some sea water on it before starting the above steps. Watching a whole crate full of sea urchins helplessly fidget before their live consumption is quite a sight.

Advanced technique: If you want to make a nice decorative squirming bowl, take the following steps:

Place the sea urchin on its side, with the bottom facing in the direction of your knife hand. You'll have to hold it, so if it's too sharp, then get a towel or gloves.
Slice off the bottom of the test, or essentially the entire mouth. Do this carefully so that things don't get messy inside and you don't lose valuable sea urchin roe
After opening, it's more comfortable to eat with chopsticks, holding the squirming urchin bowl with your other hand."

Me? I think I'll just have a peanut butter and jam sandwich.
-Rick Rockhill