Gently crack open a spiny sea urchin and five plump, golden lobes are revealed. Scoop one up and let it melt on your tongue. Silky and creamy, with a rich umami flavor and a hint of sweetness, it offers a taste of the sea at its late-summer best.
"Top-quality sea urchins should be golden in color. They should melt in your mouth, and should not only be savory but also slightly sweet," said Yang Haiming, owner of Changxianlou Sea Urchin Restaurant in Dalian, Liaoning province.
Chu shu, or End of Heat, falls on Sunday this year, marking the transition from summer to autumn. It is considered a good time to eat sea urchins in Dalian. Some farmed horse-dung sea urchins enter their peak season in August, while the locally popular "purple sea urchins" (Mesocentrotus nudus) generally pass their optimum harvesting period by late August.
Located on the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Dalian borders the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea. Favorable water temperatures and salinity, along with abundant algae, provide suitable conditions for sea urchin growth.
According to Yang, the varieties commonly found in local markets include horse-dung sea urchins and "purple sea urchins". Horse-dung urchins have shorter spines and bright orange-yellow edible lobes with a subtle sweetness. The "purple" ones have a stronger umami flavor. "One is sweeter, while the other is more savory. Both are excellent," he said.
Freshness, plumpness and color are key indicators of quality. Yang said a live urchin should have actively moving spines, while its edible lobes should be plump and brightly colored when the shell is opened. Origin, weight and harvesting season should also be considered, he added.
Sea urchins are also valued for their nutritional profile. The meat contains protein, unsaturated fatty acids, and vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, iron and zinc. The nutritional composition varies by species, season, diet and habitat.
Dalian locals tend to prepare sea urchins in a simple way. Fresh urchins that meet food safety standards and have been properly cleaned can be eaten directly from the shell. These can also be steamed with eggs, or served over hot rice with an egg suitable for raw consumption and seaweed flakes.
Sea urchin dumplings are a Dalian specialty. Yang, who grew up by the sea and has worked as a chef for 35 years, began experimenting with urchin fillings in dumplings around 2011. Initially prepared for only friends and fellow chefs, the dumplings later became a signature dish at his restaurant.
Making these dumplings requires careful handling.
Once the urchins are removed from their shells, they can quickly oxidize and turn watery, so promptness is key.
Each lobe also needs to be thoroughly cleaned before being turned into the filling.
The urchin dumplings have since spread from Dalian to Beijing and other cities. At a newly opened Beijing branch of Xiding, a Dalian-based restaurant chain known for its urchin specialities, each dumpling weighs about 20 grams, with 12 grams of filling.
Chefs use electronic scales to check the weight, boiling time is measured to the second, and the pot is covered for about 10 seconds before serving to make the dumplings rounder and plumper.
"The filling contains some pork, and we use horse-dung sea urchins from Dalian," said Yu Shuangchi, head of the restaurant's kitchen.
"Urchin dumplings need to be boiled slightly longer than other dumplings, mainly to bring out their umami flavor."
The dough is prepared and the dumpling pockets are freshly rolled every morning, while the dumplings are assembled to order, Yu added.
In Dalian, divers who harvest marine delicacies are traditionally known as hai pengzi, or sea harvesters. Some dive dozens of meters into the sea to collect deep-water sea urchins, timing their work around the tides, sometimes setting out before dawn or returning late at night.
The sea urchins are then quickly brought to the kitchen, where they are served raw, steamed with eggs, or folded into dumplings — simple preparations that allow their natural flavor to shine.
