Hacker News Reader

I've eaten jellyfish as a small side dish a few times. The texture - extremely chewy, with a crunch of chewiness at the end of the bite - was bizarre the first time, but I got used to it quickly enough. I wouldn't mind eating a dish made with it, but it might benefit from a longer, slower cooking process. Or maybe jellyfish is nothing like mammal meat and it wouldn't help, I dunno.

View on HN

Jellyfish is nothing like typical fish or land meats, so to enjoy it you need to cook/eat it with the distinctness of the texture as a major part of the experience. I love jellyfish, and the mechanical feeling of chewing it is half of the fun.

I think for people unfamiliar with jellyfish, eating it in a more "experimental" restaurant setting while blindfolded would make it much more interesting, because then you are focusing much more on the texture, and you are expecting something weird and distinct.

Have you tried any of the "tree ear" type fungi? They have a chewy+crunchy texture and bland flavor too, and I wonder if it's similar.

We call those fungi, "tree jellyfish" in Japan :)

I think that's the same thing (or similar) as woodear mushroom? That's not a bad comparison, just imagine the extreme of that texture.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com