More trivia from Larousse Gastronomique

[chickenfeet]

Apparently the oursin or sea urchin is also known in some places as the "sea hedgehog".

Comments

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

I'd be really happy about that piece of data if it weren't for the source.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Why does the source bother you?

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

I'm scared they're going to try and eat her.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I've never eaten a sea urchin as such though I've eaten sea urchin roe often enough. Raccoons seem to like them a lot though.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

When are raccoons and sea urchins ever in the same picture??

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

In the Olympic Coast National Park for sure. When we were hiking there it was common to see raccoons checking out tide pools.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

That's one of the most unexpected crossovers in the animal kingdom I've ever encountered! Right up there with baboons chasing flamingos.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I don't find it particularly odd. Raccoons (like humans) will eat almost anything. If they had opposed thumbs we'd be in deep shit.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

LOL!

I meant, I guess, that I just don't think of raccoons as coastal.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Raccoons are one of the most adaptable of animals so they live in all kinds of places, notably the city. The Olympic Forest comes right down to the beach so it's actually excellent raccoon habitat.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

See, now I've gone off in my head on a little ramble that involves the rings on a raccoon's tail actually forming the Olympic Rings.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

so who do you think invented ski goggles?

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

So? "urchin"="hedgehog" anyway, from "oursin", and only got applied to scruffy kids recently. It's dying out in English dialects but is still around in some, and it's the ones that use it that gave rise to "sea urchin", the rest using the pure English "sea hedgehog" (I don't think I've ever actually come across "sea hedgepig" but that would be another possibility).

I'm just surprised that you're surprised!

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of the urchin/hedgehog equivalence. The only dialect word I've heard for hedgehog is "proggly".

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Yup, in German sea urchin = Seeigel = sea hedgehog. Makes a lot more sense to me, and is probably the reason I have difficulty remembering the English term.