STRANGE GRUB: Cosmic Gifts That Look Like Aliens...

For as long as I've been conscious of it, it's seemed to me that the less you expect from life, or really, the less you feel entitled to, the more good stuff comes your way. Certainly it's not always a material change - that is to say that sometimes, the change is really in your perspective - but sometimes it is. I know it sounds all hokey and metaphysical, but my life really does seem to work this way. I don't always get it right, but whenever I'm truly grateful for just enough, the Universe usually sends me something so much better.

Eight - count 'em - EIGHT live uni...

Not to get all Wayne Dyer preachy in your face, but when, after a couple of years of interesting but mostly fruitless dating, I decided that all I really needed was a good man with a kind soul who would laugh and cry at the same things that make me laugh and cry and care for my children as though they were his own, I got that plus a hot, funny, geeky in the best way, fellow musician and foodnik who shares my obsession with really good sushi and voluntarily watches cooking shows every morning before he goes to work. (Well, that or Samantha Brown's Travels or No Reservations...)

When we decided all we needed was just enough space to live, cook and sleep in, where my kids would be comfortable, and where we wouldn't be soaking in triple digit temps for the summer, we got a little bungalow literally a 3 minute bike ride to the beach with a little yard where we can plant things and the Man can brew his beer and drive no more than six minutes to get to work as opposed to the hour it used to take him before we moved.

...some of them as big as The Man's head.

And most recently, when we decided that we would live on a somewhat limited food budget (among other budgets) and forego more regular sushi dinners (among other things) in order to allow me to stay home and try to carve out a new career path, the Universe sent us Diver Dude, who shall remain nameless to protect our source of ridiculously fresh from the dive (but legal!) uni year round and, when in season, spiny lobster, for a fraction of what we would pay retail.

Which might not be a big deal to some, but considering that I am *CUCKOO* for sushi and that uni (which is Japanese for sea urchin) is one of my very favorite kinds, this is a B.ig F.ucking D.eal to me. Nutty, buttery, and sweetly tasting of the sea, I can eat this stuff straight out of the shell with a little bit of that salty sea water to foil the sweet, on top of sushi rice and wrapped with nori (seaweed) and/or shiso, over plain rice with a little spicy ponzu laced with sesame oil, or even atop spaghetti with a little bit of garlic, bonito shavings and a sprinkling of toasted nori strips. Top it off with some really crisp and light lager or cava, and I'm somewhere nearing nirvana.

According to Diver Dude, these suckers are usually found about 50 feet underwater. Pair the diving with the somewhat labor intensive and delicate process of removing what I like to call roe clusters but what are apparently actually gonads, and it's not hard to see why you can easily pay anywhere from 12 to 20 dollars for a mere two pieces of uni sushi.

It would be almost indecent for me to tell you what we paid (or rather, didn't pay) for this much uni...

Sorry the pic's so yellow - nighttime, fluorescent bulb in the
kitchen, that kinda thing...

...with clusters this big...

monster uni

...but I can tell you that I, armed with a hammer and a paring knife, earned every bit of the savings in elbow grease and fine motor skills. 'Tis a delicate operation removing a critter's nutsack fully intact, as you can imagine.

uni carnage
Oh, the humanity...

uni pickin' fangers...

A pile of shells and ten inky digits later, sweet, delicious, delicate uni atop steamed rice and topped with a spicy ponzu with chili and sesame oil...

And just last night, yet another obscene quantity of uni with a ponzu of cucumbers, red onion, jalapeno, ginger, lemon zest and wasabi...

We'll probably slow our roll now that we've gotten our kid in a candy store overindulgence out of the way, but boy does it ever pay to be grateful some days...

shinae