Mystery Chilean(?) seafood(?)

Anybody know what these ladies are cooking here?

Is it an accepted form of food???

Judging from the video, I guess it’s something they eat in Chile.

http://www.mnba.cl/617/w3-article-29912.html

Was there something in that link that led you to think that? I just skimmed with my poor Spanish and it all looked like art. That was the main page. We’re going to be in the Chilean fjords in January so I’ll try to remember to keep an eye out. It sure is ‘interesting.’

I originally saw the video at the Hammer Museum. It looked to me like real food, not some weird prop. They prep it, cook it, and eat it.

I just posted the link to show that she’s Chilean and the video was made when she was an art student there.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks. I’ll keep an eye out.

This looks like a strong possibility. And it doesn’t sound like something I want to try!

http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/food/piure-possibly-the-world-s-most-outlandish-seafood/article/411274

That looks like it! Thanks.

I think it’s similar to sea squirts/pineapple. You can find them at Korean sashimi joints or Korean supermarkets. I quite enjoy them. Once you remove the outer leathery inedible skin - it’s kinda like shellfish (geoduck texture) with an iodine hint.

http://bburikitchen.com/meonggae-sea-pineapple

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They are Ascidiacea. Piure live in dense aggregations that look like rocks.

Piure. I’ve had it in seafood dishes, most likely in mariscal. I recall not minding it.

The sea squirt I had in jeongol one time was a tough, leathery pouch the size of an olive filled with a briny, earthy liquid. The owner said most people spit out the leathery part, and that for Koreans “if you don’t eat that you don’t feel like you ate seafood.”

Here’s a caption from one of the photos.

“Piure a.k.a. sea-squirts are tunicate shellfish that look like bags of blood inside a stone and taste…different…”

There are many kinds of sea squirts. Few if any others look like rocks.

I think that was one of the wildest ‘animals’ I’d ever seen!