Food

EXOTIC DELICIOUS TEXTURES NOW

Anemones and Urchin by Green Fire Productions.

by Green Fire Productions. Anemones and Urchin.

“Don't just shove food into your mouth. Taste the flavor exploding in your mouth. Appreciate the texture. Honor your food with the time you take.”

-- William Shatner

Today we are celebrating the beautiful textures of some exotic foods, from land and sea.

1. SEA URCHIN (UNI)

The edible or common sea urchin (Echinus esculentus) is a dichotomy of textures. Its large, rounded 'shell' is an exoskeleton, composed of calcareous plates, with a starburst of protruding spines.

Its inside, edible parts, have a rich, creamy texture. Often referred to as roe, or uni, it is the urchin’s gonads that are eaten.

Uni is graded based on color, texture, and freshness. The highest grade is a bright yellow/gold (Grade A) with a firm texture and somewhat sweet. Grade B uni is a more muted yellow and has a softer texture and is less sweet.

2. GOYA

Goya, also known as "bittermelon," is a vegetable commonly consumed in tropical countries. Its outer surface has a firm and bumpy texture, while its inner flesh feels and tastes like a cross between cucumber and under-ripened melon.

3. OKRA

Okra’s texture is a blessing and a curse. Depending on how and how long it is cooked, it can range from crunchy to slimy. It can be useful either way.

To harness its savory toothsome side, rub it with lemon juice or vinegar and roast it or deep fry. To make the slime work for you, use it in stews, such as gumbos, as a thickener.

4. DULSE

Dulse is a red alga, which, when dry roasted or toasted, can crisp up to resemble bacon. We use it to create an awesome vegetarian version of a BLT -- a DLT!

Rich in proteins, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, dulse can be a great new addition to your texture repertoire.

5. NOPALES

Cactus is a texture queen. Its prickles tend to keep it from being eaten. But, nopales, the tear-shaped, pads of the prickly pear cactus, are a worthy culinary endeavor. Just singe them to remove the prickles, then steam or grill them until crisp-tender. They taste a bit like asparagus or green beans. And they are a perfectly beautiful side dish for your next Tex-Mex meal.

6. AGUAJE FRUIT

If a lizard was a fruit, it would be an aguaje fruit, for sure. The aguaje comes from the the Mauritia Flexuosa tree, native to wetlands in South America. Its chestnut-coloured scaly exterior surrounds sour yellow flesh, while its seeds are rich in oils. Aguaje fruits also contain phytoestrogen and tocopherol, which has anti-aging properties.

7. RAMBUTAN

The rambutan has a bizarre texture that looks like it comes from another planet -- like a strawberry with tentacles growing on the outside. The inner flesh has a smooth, translucent, juicy texture, similar to a litchi. It has a lovely sweet and sour flavor.

8. AFRICAN HORNED CUCUMBER

With a fascinating dual-texture play, the spiky yellow African Horned Cucumber, also known as the horned melon, has a juicy green interior. It is a much-needed source of water in the Kalahari desert. It tastes like a cross between a cucumber, banana and lemon.

9. JACKFRUIT

Jackfruit is known as the “porcupine” of the vegetable world, due to its prickly textured skin. It’s a giant, weighing up to 70 pounds. The inside is a creamy golden color, with individual pods or bulbs dotted with large black seeds. The pods can be eaten fresh, roasted, or used as a cooking ingredient. When unripe or "green," jackfruit pods have a chewy texture and mild flavor. Its seeds can be roasted or boiled, like chestnuts. Ripe jackfruit is sweet enough for dessert.

10. ROMANESCU

Romanesco is a math nerd’s favorite veggie. That’s because its texture looks like a Fibonacci spiral. It is a form of cauliflower, although it is lime-green vs white, and tastes a bit sweeter.

Read more about Beautiful Textures, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact, including The Beauty & Necessity of Texture Now and The Science & Beauty of Texture Now.

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Competition. We run new creative competitions every week! Now, it’s even easier to enter with the new BeautifulNow App!

Plus check out the rest of our App’s beautiful features. It’s free to download here.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Image: by Michael Webster. Intertidal sea life.
Image: by Paul Blair. Urchin.
Image: by Marco Busdraghi. Sea Urchin’s Roe in Alghero, Sardinia.
Image: by SeanNakamura. Uni.
Image: by Helen Betts. Textured Vegetables. Goya.
Image: by Justina. Okra.
Image: by just1snap. Seaweed.
Image: by dotpolka. nopales.
Image: by CIFOR. Aguaje.
Image: by Arria Belli. 025/366 Rambutan.
Image: by Jessica Lucia. African Horned Cucumber.
Image: by Scot Nelson. Jackfruit.
Image: by Fotero. Romanescu.
Image: by tin.G. IMG_6956 viel gesundes grün.
Image: by Dallas Krentzel. Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp.) with Euphorbia milii inflorescences, Chicago Botanic Garden).
Image: by BN App - Download now!
Image: by Vee Satayamas. Rambutan from Chak-ko-pai.