when eaten after a 1 month's cure, it's very crunchy and has a little ammonia taste, but there is also a fine "shark" taste to it.
After a 3 months' cure, the meat is very tender, but the ammonia smell is strong enough that one has better pinch his nose before putting it in his mouth; even then there is still a fine shark taste to it.
Sharks use urea in their blood for osmotic balance, living in the sea water and all. I've had dogfish before and it does taste like pee.
Aside from that, my oddest culinary venture was
raw sea urchin gonads.
I was served them on the coastal shore by a Japanese marine biology professor who took an urchin out of the water, grabbed a spoon, pulled out the urchin central body and scooped around the internal edges revealing a pinkish gooey tomato seed like substance.
It really did taste like sweet tomato seeds and slightly salty.
I'll leave it at that.
[cue the peanut gallery]
