This is a striking platter of just plucked Fruits de Mer (Bounty of the Sea). We were at the beach last weekend to try and recover from the wicked jet lag that we experienced coming back six time zones. For some reason, the jet lag was far worse than if we traveled 12 time zones… at any rate, it was a quiet weekend at the beach…simple meals, a little tennis, some long walks and lots of sleep. The crew was relaxed and had lots of time to go exploring on the beach. The recent storms, the flow of the tides this time of year and an unusually low low tide meant there was a lot of coral and rocks exposed late one afternoon. Geez, just caught up with the news that there were 4 large earthquakes in the region that day…the low, low tide could have been a sign a tsunami was coming and there everyone was, poking around the rocks instead! They poked around as you see coastal natives poking around all across the country and returned to the house with a huge bag full of these various fruits de mer!
I grabbed a huge porcelain serving platter and photographed some of the bounty because I thought they would make a great picture. I actually didn’t think they were going to eat the stuff. 
I frequently come across live shells for sale in provincial markets but since I have never eaten them, I never really paid much attention to them. On this plate of finds were sea urchins, cones, murexes, cowries and various other specimens that I vaguely know the names of simply because I used to collect specimen shells as a kid. I had no idea most of them were edible. It shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone, as folks, including myself, eat snails so this was just a revelation where I wasn’t expecting it. Also included in the finds were little hard shelled crabs as well as baby clams…I think the kind that grow up to be giant clams… Somehow this kind of stuff should be protected by the World Wildlife Fund or something but if these guys didn’t eat them, some other forager certainly would… Under close inspection, it is really amazing how beautiful these creatures are. The patterns, colors and structure are really quite awe-inspiring!
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Those black urchins are edible, I mean, the meat inside? I was in Panglao, Bohol a month ago and we gathered those short-spined urchins which I knew were edibel. And there were a lot of those black long-spiny ones. Hmm. We also got to gather some small crabs. There was even a small lobster!
And, yes, they were beautiful.