dimanche 26 septembre 2010
My work organized an "oursinade" on Saturday. "oursins" are sea urchins, and oursinade is where you eat them.
One of my coworkers lives on the coast (in a very expensive touristy area) and invited us all to the beach. He fished for the sea urchins all morning, and we all brought different things- wine, bread, salads, desserts.
Alain and I arrived at the parking lot around 11:30, got a little lost trying to find exactly which obscure corner of the calanques it was (hard to tell from an aerial photo) and found everyone else around 12. It was okay though, because about half of the group had not yet arrived. Several people were sunbathing, but there was no way I was a) stripping down to my bathing suit in front of the people I work with every day or b) going in the september-cold water.
Little by little, everyone else arrived, with their spouses and kids. Around 1:30 the urchins were ready to be prepared for eating- mainly sliced in half and rinsed out. Poor things. Apparently only the females are eaten, which one would think would be hard to distinguish for those spiny creatures, but I guess it is the color- males are black and females are more brown/purple/green. Anyway, I wasn't sure whether I would eat them, but actually, after a couple glasses of alcohol, you can eat just about anything. Case in point, whiskey before haggis.
You take the eggs which are orangish and in a star shape, and spread them on bread.
Didn't really taste like much (or maybe that's the rosé speaking) but it seemed like a waste to me to kill the mamas and eat their eggs for something that doesn't have much taste and certainly not a lot to eat.
I made a ton of muffins, but I guess they weren't very good. Brought at least half home. Something about the flour being not quite right and not an after-sea-urchin dessert.
We stayed until about 5, when everyone packed up and headed home.
It was fun and it might become an annual tradition.
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3 commentaires:
Whisky before haggis... so true!
I haven't eaten sea urchins yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time...
I've never seen so many oursins! I've only tasted one once and it was very strong. Good for you for having dared.
I'm jealous that you've still got warm weather.
I've eaten sea urchin, and after reading this, probably never will.
Question: Is Alain's name pronounced Alayn or Alahn?