Monkfish and Mackerel and Uni, Oh My!

I made a recent trip to Super H Mart, a wonderful Korean supermarket, with a huge selection of ingredients that I can't find at my local Vietnamese stores.  If only it were closer!

A photo of fresh sea urchin

I had one special ingredient in mind - uni, or sea urchin roe.   It's also quiet expensive - nearly 11 dollars for a small package!  

That's a lot of money for an ingredient that I frequently found for free when stationed in Okinawa. There were tidal pools that you literally couldn't walk through, because they were absolutely teaming with sea urchin!  That was also back before I appreciated the delicacy.

I had to ask for it specially, because they didn't have any out, but I successfully obtained my uni!

I also found a special treat - monkfish!  I'd never had this before, so of course I had to immediately ask for some.   I also bought fresh mackeral, conch, gobo (burdock) root, matsutake and enoki mushrooms  and a giant daikon - all of the makings of a delicious nabe.

I decided to visit and make my mother dinner - battleship uni sushi, fried mackeral and monkfish and a nabe made with the mushrooms, gobo and conch.  It was a feast!  Unfortunately, the battery on my Ipod was dead, so I couldn't take pictures.  But I'll just leave you with this mouthwatering picture of sea urchin sushi:

Luckily, I have a little bit of the uni leftover, so I think tonight I will make uni spaghetti!