NWS: Fresh Sea Urchin! Prepping
 

Went to fisherman's warf this morning and looky what they had for sale!!!

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6317051_n.jpg

yup, that is FRESH sea urchin. you normally see "uni" at japanese sushi restaurants all prepared for you.

This isnt for the faint of heart...
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._8341016_n.jpg

Procedure as follows, cut off the spikes, cut out the bottom mouth piece, and then crack the shell around to open her up. then spoon out the roe. i found the easiest way was no different than seperate egg yolk from egg white, while running under fresh water.

The little green one
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6399150_n.jpg

Never had the green one before.

but prep turned out much easier than the red ones.

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3124771_n.jpg

Now there is only so much fresh u can eat. the remainer we are going to add to soups.

oh yeah, dont eat too much, the chlorestrol on these is stupid insane!

My bro works at a sushi restaurant, and when he started he was tasked with cleaning sea urchins. He now refuses to ever eat uni :lol

By the way, the cholesterol in uni is really good for you. You should eat as much as you can!

i thought if you don't cut it a certain way, it can be poisonous or something.. is that right? or am i talking about the wrong kind of jap food.

thats fugu, blow fish.

sea urchin spines have no poison.

of the two which one tasted better?

what are those black/brown stuff? intestines?

i guess we only eat the "meat"

Are you serious? lol Just because something is really "Good" for you doesn't mean you should eat it as much as you can. It can result in a negative effect.

Actually you are eating the female gonads of the urchin (ovaries)
I am totally serious. If you are not ignorant, then you would realize that cholesterol is only "bad" if the ratio of HDL > LDL, good LDL > bad LDL, and HDL > Triglycerides is bad. The way to properly correct all three ratios is to eat sources of GOOD cholesterol. That means natural sources from animals. Eggs, fat on meat, etc. You might have "high cholesterol" overall, but your actual detailed cholesterol profile will be vastly improved.

So if you have shitty cholesterol, or want to stay healthy and live longer, you should eat all the cholesterol you can. Keeping in mind that there is no correlation at all between high cholesterol and heart disease (contrary to what some bullshit studies attempt to say). It's inflammation and high insulin spikes that you want to avoid, not "high cholesterol".

Is there a such thing as eating too much uni? Probably.. How much bottom-feeding sea creature ovaries do you really want to ingest? But is it a concern for your cholesterol levels if you eat a lot of it? (which is what I brought up in the first place) absolutely not. Quite the opposite actually.

Uni (and other food sourced from sea animal ovaries) is actually really good for you - it is packed with protein, has a ratio of protein/fat of about 3:1, and much of the fat contains really good cholesterol. There is absolutely no reason to limit your intake of uni, beyond feeling sick from eating such rich food of course ;)

When is it in season for uni? I assume now till ???
I never had them while they are in season.

I am wondering why this thread is NWS?

because some ppl cant stomach the thought that you actually have to kill an animal to eat it.

and because if say you opened this thread while at work, ur boss swings by and see's what looks pretty damn gross, which may get u in shit, wouldnt that be considered "NOT WORK SAFE"

NWS does not always apply to porn.

how much were they selling them for? i rmbr yaohan had fresh sea urchin for sale.
just wondering if its worth all the work to clean myself

3 red ones for $10 bucks

2 green ones for $5 bucks

considering fresh uni opened like this at a japanese restaurant is around $15 bucks, this was a steal!

Nice, my parents bought 3 of em this weekend too... Tasty.

looks....kinda...gross

what difference is the red vs green?
which tasted better

red is traditional one you get at japanese restaurants. its creamy and sweet.

the green flavor is more delicate, not as sweet and creamy but its roe holds its shape better.

i had some this morning on a slice of toasted french bread, w/ olive oil, s&p, and some balsamic. good stuff!

You've got something mixed up here, HDL is the one to strive for in your diet not LDL. High density lipo proteins (HDL) serve to carry l excess cholesterol and phospholipids from the tissue and out for disposal, whilst LDL delivers cholesterol from the liver to the tissues. You're incorrect in your case of living a long and healthy life by "eating as much cholesterol" as you can, in fact that advice would increase risk of cardiovacular disease drastically.LDL is easily consumed through dietary means, via saturated fats and trans fats. However HDL concentrations aren't affected very much at all through the diet, and ways of promoting HDL concentrations are through regular physical exercise. There is a High correlation between high cholesterol and heart disease, but it's through high LDL concentration due to it's function in the body. So summary, dietary intake of cholesterol should be moderated but not necessarily eliminated. This will help in controlling high cholesterol levels which would increase risk of Heart disease. I'd cite all my sources, but you would just call it bullshit and ignorant.

dont really get the hype of ppl craving for uni


it looks like...diahhrea


:(

Cholesterol is made up of HDL and LDL. You can't have one without the other. At the same time, there are two types of LDL - big 'fluffy' managable particles, and small 'sticky' little particles that the body has problems handling. If you are going to have LDL no matter what, then you want the "good LDL". And where does that come from? Naturally saturated fat. Animal fat. Sea Urchin ovaries :D
Blah blah blah, you are preaching the outdated, old, unproven notion that there is a direct link between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. There is no such link. Correlation != causation.
Which is why I said you should get cholesterol from saturated fats, and not trans fats. You are going to get LDL anyway, so make it the type that will not cause issues.
Correlation != causation. There are some inaccurate, poorly done studies that can be construed as showing a correlation. But properly done studies show that there is no direct causation between high cholesterol and heart disease. Remember - correlation does NOT mean causation.

There is a High correlation between having grey hair and dying of old age. Does that mean having grey hair will make you die?
Well you got one thing right at least. Because anything attempting to show a direct cause of heart disease being attributed to high cholesterol is going to be bullshit. And anyone who believes it blindly is ignorant.

I will finish with this video, where Dr Malcolm Kendrick explains the non-existence of a relationship between high cholesterol and heart disease, using data from a World Health Organization study. This should put an end to any scepticism you may have. If not, I don't have much to offer you except my condolences to you and the people around you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SSCNaaDcE

what!?
3 for $10???

how many pieces are in the red ones? restaurant charge like $20 for 6-8 piece fresh uni sashimi.......

as i said, what you pay for is the prep. the prep is pretty messy.

each sea urchin has 5 pieces of roe.

the prep is where ur money goes to when u order at a restaurant, and honestly, i understand why they would charge that price.
not only do u need to get the roe out, but u also need to clean it, that is seperate the roe from the shell then the roe from the innerds, then gentle rinse under water to have it fully clean. now if they plan on reusing the shell as a serving dish, then u gotta make sure the shell is intact.

true correlation doesn't equal causation, but at the same time what you posted was one man's word against an accepted understanding. Howeve, north american health agencies still agree with the correlation of cholesterol and heart disease and current university courses, still "preach" this information. Believe it or not, this social belief did not come without research, and multitudes of studies have been put into cardiovascular disease. Whatever you wish to believe is up to you, but go out there and tell a doctor straight up. "I'm on a high cholesterol diet full of saturated fat," and see what he says, probably not "good going chap!" As a side note, Transfats are avoided due to the fact that they were originally non-hydrogenated fats (good) that have been converted into a version similar to saturated fats in form and function. So a high intake of saturated fats is just as bad as transfat. I won't waste my time explaining the organic structures of them. Rock on with your amazing health philosophy, it sure sounds tasty ;)

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/308/6925/367

The results of this article show a reduction in serum cholesterol concentration reduces the risk of ischaemic heart disease.

I dont have a problem with people being intelligent about their health and do research but I think it is stupid when people think they are the "experts" from what they read on wikipedia or youtube.

Sea urchin looks yummy btw

My mom took my car to get these sea urchins at steveston too... now my car stinks like sea water :(

The yucky looking stuff is just seaweed and is actually really easy to rinse out.