Am I the only one who ate a raw sea urchin straight off the dock in Santa Cruz last Saturday
The guy cleaning his boat just handed me one and said try it, so I did, and it tasted like the ocean mixed with butter. Now I want to know if that was a lucky one or if they all taste like that, cause I paid $18 for one at a restaurant in San Jose once and it was way worse.
Tasted fresh uni right off the boat in Half Moon Bay once and it ruined me for restaurant stuff forever. The good ones are sweet and creamy like butter with that ocean kick, but the bad ones turn mushy and bitter fast. That $18 one you got was probably sitting in a tank for days or came from a bad batch, cause fresh off the dock is a whole different food. Sea urchin goes bad quick, like within a day or two, so timing matters way more than the price tag. You basically got the best version for free, which is honestly kind of unfair to every restaurant now.