Playing hard to get...

The pleasure of snorkeling around just cannot be described provided you do get to see the live little (better not be too big, indeed) beings that animate the underworld. The bottom of the Adriatic is certainly not the Seychelle's (I talk out of ignorance, unfortunately), but luckily at every bubbly turn there is something moving, shining in the filtered sun.

Schools of fish are alive and kicking and graze on green prairies of algae only mildly disturbed or scared by the presence of the unelegant intruder (that would be me). Maybe I can redeem myself from swimming clumsiness by saying that I am a very, very peaceful explorer of the bottom of the sea: I do not touch, only look (any Dutch readers here? You get my drift...) and relish in true Epicurean style. It would only be unfair to myself to mention here that I am also a true sissy girl who gets scared by the bubbles shooting out of my own snorkle.

However, it so happens that this cautious tactique of mine is fully rewarded every time we see and admire from a good distance those funny black balls that are nestled in the nooks and crannies of the rocks at the bottom of the sea... Meet the spiky sea urchins! These rock-style black beauties in their masochistic attire behave like true stars: they like to be admired from afar.

This being said, I have a confession to make: freshly caught sea urchins are unbeatable. If you are lucky enough to have someone plunge head first, catch them and split them open for you, call me. You will taste that joyous coral flesh and its sea juices with a lovely piece of bread to find again paradise lost. It cannot be any fresher than that.

In an attempt at tasting the succulent flesh of local sea urchins, we attended a typical fair (sagra del riccio) in their honor in Porto Badisco - the real fisherman's cove... Only high tide and strong sea that day prevented the fishermen from going out at sea (sissies!), so we had mussels instead. Not a sea urchin in sight on the long wooden tables that evening. The little spiky things were playing hard to get. And they won:

Sea urchins: 1 - The Daydreamer: 0

Luckily, the city girl that I am has a ready-made solution to the drama: try sea urchins and safran paste blissfully discovered during one of my urban whereabouts here. Paired with organic De Cecco pasta, it is just heaven. All right, I may be missing the Mediterranean scenery, the gritty sand in my teeth, but at least I get a distant flavor, a reminiscence...

We will meet next year, little urchins!

Credit: unknown