Uni – Gunkanmaki – [Sushi | Foodlore]

Description

• Uni – (Sea Urchin.) – Katakana: ウニ, Hiragana: うに, Kanji: 海胆. – Season: Nov – Mar. (various.)

• About this fish: The sweet creamy innards of Prickly Sea Urchins, (specifically their gonads/ovaries/roe.) saying this aloud might sound a bit ‘sus’, but  its one of the few fish that you can actually taste & see the difference in the Urchins age/gender! Expert chefs can tell at a glance; Adult Males are pale & savoury with a clean after taste, Females are ‘redder’ & have a stronger sweetness to them. The Youngest ones are the same colour of orange regardless. All tend to have somewhat of a rich, creamy & briny after bite to them. – Although uni is not exactly a Edomae (traditional) sushi; it became popular after WW2, They can be served nigiri style, but they can be a bit messy to pick up, so serving it as a Gunkan-maki is the more popular option. (Plus, The crisp nori compliments the creamy flavors just so!) Today, there are specialty restaurants around the world at serve ONLY Uni. – (With over 900 different species of Sea Urchin found world wide, that’s a pretty unique niche!) – Don’t feel too badly about eating them: as Sea Urchins have recently seen a boom in overpopulation ocean-wide mostly due to global warming and are known to cause damage to kelp forests, grazing and eliminating them, creating something akin to a (very prickly) underwater desert known as an ‘Urchin Barren’ (which in turn causes a further decline in Fish, Whales, Coral and other Bivalves!) – So, I say, eat some Uni and feel guilt free! (but, do take care, not to eat too many at once, as they’re quite high in cholesterol!!) 

[Sticker art by @Samkalensky, part of my Nigiri sushi/Foodlore collection of stickers]