BajaNomad - would YOU eat this?

would YOU eat this?

shari - 7-4-2012 at 07:39 PM

Nan & D often come bearing gifts...a plant cutting, smoked fish or perhaps a cinnamon bun or two...but today they showed up with the only seafood I'm not all that fussy about. Oh yes, I nibbled at it, ate some of the inside but finally found an ocean critter I wouldnt bring home.

cute little bugger though eh! NOT

It is sea cucumber season right now...tough job as the diver has to work at up to 20 fathoms and they are pretty scarce so they are down a long time. Most divers that get the bends are diving for these...luckily we have a new hyperbaric chamber here now.

[Edited on 7-5-2012 by shari]

AmoPescar - 7-4-2012 at 08:03 PM

NOT ME!!!

I'm not THAT adventurous!

Miguelamo :yes:

rts551 - 7-4-2012 at 08:11 PM

That pepino is all yours

Bajaboy - 7-4-2012 at 08:21 PM

nope, I'll stick to the abalone our neighbors just brought over.... :lol:

edm1 - 7-4-2012 at 08:29 PM

Of course I would. I love it, rawish, goes well with beer.

redmesa - 7-4-2012 at 08:44 PM

I would eat it before I would eat Nieve...!!!!

shari - 7-4-2012 at 08:54 PM

edm...aha! Ok then...let's hear how you prepare it por favor...it's not too bad in a stew type thing but seems rather tasteless to me...give me a calico eye anytime!

BajaBruno - 7-4-2012 at 11:06 PM

Twenty fathoms, Shari? I don't have the tables handy, but the down time on air at that depth is <15 minutes. The co-op might invest in some dive computers and instruction and maybe the chamber wouldn't get so much use. Even a little decompression sickness ain't good for long-term health. But of course, you know this already.

rhintransit - 7-5-2012 at 06:14 AM

when I recently took the Sta Rosalia ferry, I talked with a guy who was loading a big plastic container, about 4'x4'x4', full of pepinos del mar. he said he takes them to the mainland where there is a big market for them in the Chinese community.

Cypress - 7-5-2012 at 06:35 AM

Oysters don't look very tasty either, but they sure are good.

shari - 7-5-2012 at 08:19 AM

baja bruno...20 meters is the deepest they will go but yes, not having the dive computers puts the divers at risk and if the cucumbers are scarce, the team jefe (up on the boat) pressures the divers to stay down longer to fill the bucket. I did consider putting out a request for any divers having old computers to donate them to the coop...they really should make the investment themselves and the divers should be better trained and dives monitered...it's the accumulated dives that gets em too as they dive every day in good weather.

durrelllrobert - 7-5-2012 at 09:10 AM

Ate plenty of RAW sea cucumber on my trips to S. Korea and they were fine. What I couldn't handle though was the RAW Jellyfish they served.

shari - 7-5-2012 at 09:33 AM

raw jellyfish eh? hmmm...now ya got me thinking...the one in back sort of looks like a doughnut I guess...would you slice them thin? I am so gonna try it on my next beachwalk. Now raw sea cucumber? they are so jiggly, do you just cut a piece off and down it?

BajaBlanca - 7-5-2012 at 11:33 AM

I am such a wimp. I'll pass. on both jelly n cucumber.

Brinloor - 7-5-2012 at 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
edm...aha! Ok then...let's hear how you prepare it por favor...it's not too bad in a stew type thing but seems rather tasteless to me...give me a calico eye anytime!

Shari strip out the 4 lengths of white muscle meat just under the skin, stir fry in butter and garlic. Tender and delicious. I think the entire animal dried then reconstituted for soup is an acquired Oriental taste.

shari - 7-5-2012 at 12:11 PM

Brinloor....yes, this is how we ate it in B.C. canada too...yummy...kinda like seafood bacon..but the cukes are very small here so the strips really arent worth all the trouble. They make a guisado or simmered stew with veggies out of them...but i find they dont taste like much...kinda like tripe.

Brinloor - 7-5-2012 at 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
Brinloor....yes, this is how we ate it in B.C. canada too...yummy...kinda like seafood bacon..but the cukes are very small here so the strips really arent worth all the trouble. They make a guisado or simmered stew with veggies out of them...but i find they dont taste like much...kinda like tripe.

Kinda like tripe. Ugh. Thanks for the warning, I won't try them here! Didn't realize you were from BC also.

shari - 7-5-2012 at 02:42 PM

Hey paisano...brinloor, I never thought I would eat tripe either...but my husbands sisters make the best dang hangover soup out of it...menudo...yummy!

and living in Clayoquot and Barclay Sound allowed me to eat lots of curious things like sea cucumber, geoduck, urchins, oysters of course, crab, and my all time favoite herring roe off of spruce bows like the gray whales feed off of!

calico eyes are my favorite fish eye by far although corvinas are very sweet but tiny.....dont knock em till ya try em!!

[Edited on 7-5-2012 by shari]

BajaBruno - 7-5-2012 at 03:27 PM

You and I have a similar streak, Shari--I also like to try eggs that float by or wash up on the beach. Most are pretty tasteless, other than the briny flavor, but the tiny eggs bursting is kind of fun. I haven't done fish eyes, though, but you've given me an idea!

Ken Bondy - 7-5-2012 at 03:57 PM

Sis the no-decompression time at 120 fsw is 12 minutes. Do you know if they do decompression stops if they exceed that time or do they just blow off the tables?

edm1 - 7-5-2012 at 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Brinloor

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
edm...aha! Ok then...let's hear how you prepare it por favor...it's not too bad in a stew type thing but seems rather tasteless to me...give me a calico eye anytime!

The wife's recipe is simple. Skin it, gut it, pick the tender sections, Rub them in generous supply of salt, wash them off, pour boiling water for half a minute, dice them to 1 inch by half inch, vinegar, chopped tomatoes and onions, salt, pepper . . . A few bottles of Pacifico, yum!!!

[Edited on 7-6-2012 by edm1]

shari - 7-5-2012 at 06:05 PM

Edm...i gather that you cook it before you skin it eh. how long...boiled?

edm1 - 7-5-2012 at 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
Edm...i gather that you cook it before you skin it eh. how long...boiled?

No cooking, preferably live sea cucumbers, rawish. It's sea cucumber salad. The half-minute douse of boiled water is it. And I stand corrected, the wife says lime, not vinegar. What do I know:-)

[Edited on 7-6-2012 by edm1]

shari - 7-6-2012 at 07:37 AM

so you skin it before you pour the boiling water over it? I have a hard time figuring out how to skin the slippery, slimy little booger...do you cut it in half lengthwise and sort of cut the skin off like a fish? I'm gonna get one and try this because I simply cant imagine any seafood I dont like...even better if I can eat it raw.

durrelllrobert - 7-6-2012 at 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
so you skin it before you pour the boiling water over it? I have a hard time figuring out how to skin the slippery, slimy little booger...do you cut it in half lengthwise and sort of cut the skin off like a fish? I'm gonna get one and try this because I simply cant imagine any seafood I dont like...even better if I can eat it raw.

Skin it the same way you do a Geoduck clam:

shari - 7-6-2012 at 11:54 AM

bob...have you ever handled or skinned a fresh sea cucumber? they arent like a geoduck...they are more gooey and just splish n gloop in your hands...just wondering...if the answer is yes...then I'll have to try it again...thanks for your input and photo

Cypress - 7-6-2012 at 12:12 PM

I'm waiting for Shari's verdict on these sea cucumbers. Anybody that enjoys fish eyeballs has a taste for seafood. :biggrin:

The eyeballs of most of the fish I catch aren't worth digging out and eating, way smaller than grapes. :biggrin:

shari - 7-6-2012 at 01:09 PM

I'm waiting to try jellyfish...does anyone know if the ones I posted a photo of are OK to munch on? I did only see one seagull picking at one so I'm a little leary...if I see birds or animals eating something, I'll usually try it...I'll try most anything once!

durrelllrobert - 7-6-2012 at 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shari
I'm waiting to try jellyfish...does anyone know if the ones I posted a photo of are OK to munch on? I did only see one seagull picking at one so I'm a little leary...if I see birds or animals eating something, I'll usually try it...I'll try most anything once!

I have no idea of what the Korean jelly fish that I was served in a Chinese restaurant there looked like before it was put on my plate. It was just cut in strips like bacon and served with seaweed and a mystery dipping sauce to dip it in. A real b*#*h to pick up with chop sticks

The one in your picture is a Cannonball jellyfish:
Unlike typical jellyfish the cannonball is a strong swimmer with a compact, solid body and few stinging tentacles. The Latin name for the cannonball, Stomolophus meleagris, is very descriptive of its lifestyle and means "many mouthed hunter." The cannonball feeds and swims by pumping water with a gelatinous bell over the sticky folds of its arms trapping larval stages of oysters, clams, and a variety of crustaceans. This sticky mucus is passed to numerous openings among the arms that lead to its mouth. It is abundant along Florida's northern Gulf of Mexico and off the northern Atlantic Coast, occurring in groups of millions.

The cannonball has great potential value as a food item in the world market. The most important fact about the protein in the cannonball jellyfish is the collagen it contains. Our bodies need collagen to build cell tissue, cartilage, teeth and bones. Scientific research continues on collagen and its medical potential. For over a thousand years, Asians have been eating jellyfish for medicinal reasons to treat high blood pressure, arthritis, bronchitis and other diseases. The cannonball jellyfish is an ideal diet food because it is low in fat, cholesterol and calories.

surfdoc - 7-6-2012 at 06:29 PM

Wait...........I think I woke up next to her a feww weeks ago...

Eat her..........oh hell no!