Taste The Future: Sea Cucumbers

“It breathes through its anus, can liquefy its body and acts as the waste collectors of the seabed. Scientists now believe that a species of sea cucumber living off the British coast could become a lucrative culinary export. A project will begin this year to see whether it is possible to harvest commercial quantities of sea cucumbers — which are animals not plants — from beneath fish farms where the seabed is laden with the organic detritus…. Known for its slipperiness — a test for all but expert chopstick users — the sea cucumber is a delicacy best served braised in a broth of shitake mushrooms. Its flavour has been rated by one western diner as ‘slightly lower than phlegm, the texture of which it closely resembles’.”