Eating Sponge Bob's second cousin twice removed, Uni the sea urchin

So you've finally gathered the guts to eat uni. (They say it's raw sea urchin "roe." [whispering in teeny voice] But it's really sea urchin gonads, dude! Seriously yo.) We have a few pointers we picked up from Chef Dave from Shiro's in Seattle. (Yes, they serve really good stuff!)

What to expect
Uni has the texture of brain (not that we know what brain feels like, but that's how we imagine it)—firm yet custardy. Uni has a light, sweet taste with no hint of fishiness.

Determining quality
Eat only fresh uni. Uni is delicate and falls apart easily, so it gets disgusting when it's been processed. If it's watery or squishy, turn up your nose and mentally cross out the sushi place from your list of favorite restaurants.

The best kinds of uni are harvested in cold waters. Alaskan sea urchin are good, and the ones in California are seasonal (late fall through winter). They can be good when the water is cold, but terrible when not. The Japanese market covets the December harvests in particular.

Bon Appetit!
What could whet appetite better than the, ahem, something-something of spiky sea-cucumber thingies with the mouthfeel of braaaiins?! Enjoy!

p.s. "spiky sea-cucumber thingies" are called "echinoids" by some people with fancy degrees. See, we know some big words! Oooh!

The fun part of exercising—eating!

Eating before and after exercise matters because it affects the quality and results of your efforts.

Before exercising
Make sure that you have enough energy to sustain the intensity of your workout. Eat a substantial meal (300-500) with a 2:1 ratio of complex carbs and protein. Candies and soda are nonsense carbs, so think whole grains. 

If it's been a while since you last ate, snack up on bananas, cereal, or something that's easy to digest (that is, not loaded with fat or fiber). It's a snack, OK, so 100-200 calories would do. Do I need to tell you that a wheel of aged cheddar is a bad idea?

While exercising
If you are going for long sessions, say, a 40-mile bike ride, you need to keep on snacking to keep yourself from bonking out. At a brisk pace, one can burn about 500-700 calories an hour (but the actual number of calories that you burn depends on a variety of factors, like your weight, muscle mass, intensity, and so on). 

It doesn't matter if you are not in the mood to chow. Remember the rule: Eat before your hungry, drink before you are thirsty. By the time you feel the pangs, it's too late. You're already approaching Bonksville.

After exercising
Help your muscles recover from the beating. Within 20 minutes of your exercise, eat a mix of protein and carbs, such as a fruit smoothie,  milk, or yogurt with fruits. Ricotta cheese is particularly promising. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that it eased workout-related muscle soreness. The cheese contains a type of amino acid essential for repairing exercise-worn muscles.

Don't pig out (like sucking in 40 ounces of smoothie) just because you burned some calories that day. Be consistent with your caloric intake, otherwise you'd be gaining some pudge along with muscle mass.

And don't forget to rest or do low intensity stuff for a couple of days after a really punishing workout. For dealing with muscle soreness, see the previous blog.