Another day and another excruciating food porn post. What has social media evolved into nowadays? Anyway, I got my stab at eating some oysters and sea urchin today, both of which I'm used to eating "cooked" instead of raw. Some what a surprise round of food because the dishes we had (chicken with cashew nuts) was more traditional and made for a really odd combination.
My experience with eating raw food is quite limited and therefore I wasn't completely sure about what to do with the sea urchin. Oysters are commonly eaten in China but they are not eaten raw. Usually they are prepared with some vermicelli and garlic, and served steamed. Here, the oysters are shucked and served with Mignonette Sauce and tabasco. I am told this is way the Europeans eat it and in my foray into exploring western cuisine, I went with it and tried it out.
Honestly, the taste of oysters is quite strong on it's own and the sauce doesn't do much to cover that up. I was initially put off by the smelly fishy raw taste and complexion of the oyster, and putting aside the fact that i'm eating it raw, it actually tastes very distinct. I understand why people love it and honestly, I could imagine with a few more sittings of eating oysters, I'd probably love them too. However, today, they still taste weird to me!
Sea urchin's are also considered to be a delicacy their spiky exterior masks the fact that on the inside they are extremely soft. I must say, I enjoyed eating this raw more than the oyster. Supposedly they should taste like a natural ocean flavour, but in my first attempt, I added a bit too much lemon juice and probably covered up the taste. Overall, I think it is a savoury kind of taste and actually rather delicious. I'm certainly open to having sea urchin raw again. Oysters i'm not sure about.