I love a food market, especially a fish market. Fun fact: After 8 surgeries on my ears as a child, my auditory orifices are shot so I can’t go diving. Even if I could, being from Ohio and Kentucky, every time I go snorkeling far from the shore I hear the “Jaws” theme pumping in my head. So, yeah. No scuba masks for me. Instead,  I go diving by visiting fish markets. Which suits me just fine – that way I can actually touch the fish and check them out without having them swim away or, you know, bite me. Added bonus: Dry Diving means I also don’t have to worry about a bikini wedgie or that weird rash you get from a wet suit.

Yummy. I swear.

I haven’t been to my dream fish market in Tokyo yet, but the one in Sydney Fish Market was pretty insane – with almost everything in the ocean available to poke, prod and squeeze.

So I was pretty stoked to find the fish market in the Mercado Central in Santiago, Chile. My guide, Fanor (velascofanor@hotmail.com), even introduced me to a new sea specimen I hadn’t even heard of: Piure.

Piure is a seriously weird looking shellfish – like a cross between an alien lung and a rock… it’s not going to win any undersea beauty awards anytime soon but damn, is it tasty. Almost as good as my favorite thing in the world: sea urchin. Almost.

An order at the Mercado Centrale will set you back around $5 – and order it the “regular” (ceviche) way: with lemon, chopped onions, olive oil, parsley and salt. You won’t regret it.

As an added bonus, check out this video of me blissing out over a bowl of sea urchins. Apparently sea urchins have crabs. Who knew? Thankfully, not the kind you got in college, but parasitical just the same. I present to you now, a philosophical discussion on sea urchin STDs: