Fear Factor

Greetings all! And how's everyone doing today? Well, for all those who know me, or have been reading muh blog will know that I was in Sydney last week for the Hillsong conference. Well, the conference ended on Friday and thus I had the whole weekend to get out and about to some of my favourite hunts in Sydney.

So on Saturday, I met up with muh fellow engineering buddy William and his girlfriend Sue-anne, along with Eunice and Ronny, and headed down to the Sydney fish market. I love the fish market. Its nothing like the wet and dirty ones you think of when you hear "fish market". Its pretty touristy this one, and there you get lots of seafood! GLORIOUS SEAFOOD!! I always enjoy going there, get stuffed on my favourite seafood platter. Lobster, Crabs, prawns, calamari, baby octopus, fish and chips and lemon on everything! YUMMY! But that Saturday was a little different. It was gonna be a little fear factor day for me.

I'm sure you guys have seen that show right? Fear factor? Where they make contestants do scary stuff and eat unimaginable junk?

So there I was, queueing up to pay for my platter when I saw this couple. They were upper-middle aged, probably in their late 40s ~ early 50s. They were just standing a few feet from me, inspecting this styrofoam box filled with sea urchins. Sea urchins! They're those things that you learnt about in primary school! They're poisonous and spikey and if you step on them while walking barefooted in the sea, you will DIE! (or something along that line) So anyhow, these Korean fellas, they look and they fiddle and they toss a few of those urchins around in the box and then finally they buy 5 of em'. I hear them ask the dude behind the counter, "Can you cut them open for us? We eat here." I was like, "EAT? EAT those urchins??" I thought maybe they were buying the critters to play extreme tennis or to hide them in the shoes of some neighbour they didn't like. I was freaked out. So, I quickly ran over to them, and bought 1 for myself. "I would like mine cut too thanks!"

I had to try it. How exciting! You can eat the weirdest things man. So I got my Urchin and I brought it back to the table and Eunice wasn't impressed. And I don't blame her. Look at it. I mean, LOOK AT IT! Click on it to see a bigger picture! Who in the right mind would eat that?? I have always wondered, what kind of lunatic would go into the sea, dig up an oyster and then pry it open to eat the gross and disgusting looking stuff in it?? Now I know. Its the lunatic who saw another lunatic crack open an urchin to eat it. So how did it taste? I don't really know actually. Its kinda Oysterish.... but my adrenaline could've numbed my tastebuds, plus i had lots of wasabi and soya sauce to help me. Would I recommend it? For an experience, sure! Go for it! For an everyday appetizer before your main meal, forget it.... stick to pickles and salads.



Gosh, I think I was feeling sick for the next 2 hours at least. I dunno if It was psychological, or intestinal. The fella behind the counter told me to slurp every single bit of it down from the shell. He said thats how the Koreans eat it. He's nuts. And if the Koreans really eat it like that, they're nuts too. I didn't slurp it down by the way. I only sampled differene parts of it, based on the colors. Gross.