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Last spring, I went home to
Santiago, Chile, for the first
time in years. The highlight
of the trip was a week on
the coast, when I visited
the beachside town of
Maitencillo, where I went to
a small fish market to buy
clams and sea urchin.
Chileans have been
eating erizo rojo, what
we call uni, for hundreds
of years. You’ll find it in
ceviches, and it’s a key
ingredient in an old-school
broth made of venison
or beef, to which raw
sea urchin is added at
the last minute, that is
then finished with sherry
vinegar. It’s delightful and
intense. But my favorite
way to eat it is the way I
did as a girl: When I was
little, on visits to the coast
with my mom, we’d buy
clams and sea urchin fromvendors at the market,
who would open them for
us and top the clams with
the sea urchin roe. We’d
sometimes eat them right
then and there, with simple
garnishes of lemon wedges
and a little chopped
cilantro and onion.
Sea urchin used to
grow wild here; they
were sadly overfished,
but they’re coming back.
While on the coast, I met
John Spaarwater, who
started a sustainable uni
farm. He’s looking to bring
urchin back to the area—to
repopulate the over-
harvested waters. They
take seven to nine years
to grow, and I ate some of
the first urchins to mature.
They tasted wild, and full
of promise. —chef Victoria
Blamey, as told to Karen
ShimizuUNI DREAMS IN CHILE
WHERE TO CHILE OUT About 20
minutes up the coast from Maitencillo, the
village of Zapallar abounds with culinary
and architectural charm. Bed down in one
of 14 ocean-view rooms at the stylish and
intimate Hotel Isla Seca. (Rooms from
$179; hotelislaseca.cl)PHOTOGRAPHY: VICTOR PROTASIO; FOOD STYLING (LEFT): TORIE COX; PROP STYLING (LEFT): AUDREY DAVIS; FOOD STYLING (RIGHT): ANNA HAMPTON; PROP STYLING (RIGHT): HEATHER CHADDUCK HILLEGAS