I scream, you scream, we all scream for....sea urchin??

Fish Foie anyone? Ok. It's not exactly like fish "foie gras". It's not exactly like caviar. It's not exactly like anything I've ever eaten before.....and I LIKE it! Sea Urchin. I think it's my new food obsession.

My husband and I joined our friends Eric and Clare for dinner last night. We had hoped to grab some dim sum (typically a Chinese brunch-ish meal) for dinner, but being that dim sum, in it's essence, should really only be eaten in the morning/mid day, the restaurant we were eyeing was no longer dishing out the dim. And rightly so. However, we were still in the Asian mood, so we followed ClarEric (wow...I like that...why haven't I come up with that before!) to one of their favorite local sushi places in Old City Philadelphia....Zento : ttp://www.zentocontemporary.com/

Shame on me. I didn't take a picture of the lovely sea urchin I am now writing about. Here is a stock picture from Wikipedia. It looks kind of gross right? I think, as a rule, most of the world's most delicious delicacies must look weird. I don't make the rules. I just eat them. Sea urchin is no exception. It has the texture of smooth fish roe, the color of a traffic cone and the taste of...well...nothing I've ever experienced. I guess it tastes of the sea in the best way possible. Fishy...yes, a bit. Mild...certainly. Meaty...slightly. Briney...just enough.

I'm sure my description didn't really help you to understand the beauty of this creature. So you're just going to have to go out there and try it for yourself. Yes. That was my plan all along ;) So head out there and try to find yourself some sea urchin. Our taste of it was around $5 which, in my book, is a bargain any way you slice it.