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Published: March 11th 2007
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A delicacy
urchins are rightly considered a delicacy by Brindisinos. This means “a snack” in Italian. And in Italy and many other cultures, if it walked, ran, galloped, waddled, flew, burrowed, swam, etc. etc., it is fair game for eating. Well, I was recently introduced to the fine art of eating ricci or sea urchin; Italian style of course. Since I hadn’t ever eaten sea urchin, our good friend Vincenzo wouldn’t stand for this shortcoming in my life and insisted that I must have some ricci. So Vincenzo and Sara came over with a couple of dozen urchins in a plastic bag. Sea urchin can be found by diving for them or find them clinging to rocks in the shallows. According to Vincenzo, the best tasting ones are the ones in deeper water. It is too cold for diving this time of year and so we had to eat some of the more pedestrian tasting urchins.
What one eats is the roe (eggs) of the urchin. First one snips out a hole around the opening of the urchin. Then a bit of the sea water from the inside of the other urchins is poured in the freshly opened urchin. Next one can daintily scoop out the roe with a bit of
Snipped open
A delicate grip and sharp scissors are necessary. bread or do as a true Brindisino would and drink the water and lick the inside of the urchin clean. You will note that some of the roe is quite red and some yellowish. The redder the roe, the better tasting; really! The trick is to ignore the fact that the newly opened urchin are still crawling around in the bowl as they are still alive. If you are going for the primal approach in eating urchin senza pane (without bread) be careful not to stick one of the barbs in your tongue. It is best to be absolutely sober in this case.
I, for one, really liked them. So now to sum up my acculturation to Italian life:
1. I drive like I am late to a meeting with the pope.
2. Have mastered a fine repertoire of Italian swear words and expressions.
3. Have taken to gesticulating with my hands while talking.
4. Start out my day with a caffeine bomb disguised as a teeny cup of coffee.
5. Every evening meal is capped off with a digestivo.
6. Know that no problem is worth getting upset over if you talk about it to death.
7. Read the
Red Roe
Red roe-ver,red roe-ver, send your eggs right over! Corriere Della Sera the evening paper to see whats up.
In my next installment of “Eating Adventures with Vincenzo”, I will report on barbequing horse and ass (donkey) meat. All of which gives new meaning to the expression “Getting your ass handed to you on a platter.”
By the by, the travel blog is experiencing problems with the subscription service. The guy that runs travelblog.org is trying to get it fixed. In the meantime, just bookmark it and go to it periodically. I haven’t posted much recently as we got sick for a couple of weeks and fell behind at work and everything else. I may be finally getting caught up.
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Dave K
non-member comment
We've lost you!
This latest missive really made me laugh, and wonder if we'll see you again State-side, or whether you'll just eat, drink and gesticulate yourself to a slow, expatriated death (but not until the next century, at least). Worse ways to go than that! Keep us posted!