Achinós

I sometimes think that gastronomes are returning to bronze age practices. The Apollonians had no gastronomic pretensions; nevertheless, after work in the summer, they repaired with a loaf of bread and a flask of wine to a little promontory of rock frequented by sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus). Picking them off the rocks underwater, they bashed in their prickle-covered shells with knife or stone, emptied them, then dipped some bread into the shell to extract their succulent orange ovaries to the accompaniment of jokes and laughter.