LUXOMME

I headed over to Diana's Seafood again, a little gem for those of you in Toronto. They have a lovely restaurant beside the store where you can get your seafood craving satisfied without having to do the dirty work. In my opinion though, the work is half the fun.


It starts off with picking your oysters from the oyster selection. They sit there piled up in the case practically begging you to take them home. I'm going to admit, I'm much better at eating them than choosing them so I usually ask the ladies behind the counter what they recommend and which ones are the freshest. This time we decided to go for an assortment of oysters rather than 5 dozen of one kind.


On our way to the checkout counter, my cousin gasped and pointed at these spiky little balls, half in horror and half in bewilderment. I haven't talked about this obsession as much but I have an equal addiction to these balls which actually aren't as horrifying on the inside as they are on the outside, and definitely taste better than they look.


Handling them is a bit tricky because it will cause you pain if you grip them too hard. Gloves are recommended if you want to clean these yourselves.


Most people don't bother trying to open sea urchins at home because they are either perplexed by how to get the roe out or think it's too hard to pry these open. But all it really takes is a small butter knife and spoon. The easiest way is to dig the knife into the middle and pull out the center. Then slowly break down the surrounding shell until the roe is exposed.


Once you see the yellow begin to peek out from within the shell, you use the small spoon to scoop it out and rinse the black digested gunk out of the urchin.

Then, after an hour of work prying open oysters and cleaning urchins, you're left with this smorgasbord of tastiness. The oysters are simple; a dash of tabasco and mignonette goes a long way and can bring out the saltiness of the sea. The urchins can be eaten as is or tossed in sea salt, olive oil and lemon juice.



I definitely downed most of this that evening along with a dozen cherrystone clams which were a massive pain to open. We bought 100 of them and ended up only opening 60 because they really did not want to be eaten. It got to the point where I became so desperate that I took the clams out onto the balcony to smash them against the cement floor just so I could slip my knife in. Super professional right? I can't believe I'm admitting this.

Cleanliness level probably 0, but innovativeness and creativity +10.

Don't worry, I washed everything thoroughly afterwards.