Namako

It is really gross and I actually did not know about sea cucumber until I was in my 4th grade. One day, my aunt was cooking and started to eat this slimy looking creature..she was cutting the creature, which was somehow moving and without even marinating it in the sauce..anyways it was so gross and I was standing there without saying anything.

I finally got the courage to ask my aunt what it was..she said “It’s namako..it actually crunchy and very tasty.” And she was cutting them into smaller pieces. After she was done cooking, my family and other relatives sat down at the table and my aunt put a small portion of marinated namako on a small individual plate for us (how nice!), so I basically had to eat..

hum..I was scared and grossed out at the same time. Who would want to eat that? It looks pretty ugly and disgusting. In my family, my mom will never cook anything like that but I wanted to be polite and also I was really curious so I tried a little…wow crunchy. That was my first reaction…

and I actually was able to eat a few pieces and had I not known what it looks like, I could have eaten them all because my aunt marinated the ugly creature nicely and it tasted pretty good.

If you are traveling to Japan and dare to eat strange food, I highly recommend “namako”.