Noodle Tuesday: Uni Pasta, Part Two

At Taormina and Arancino at Beachwalk.

The last time I did an uni pasta roundup, people wrote in the comments that I missed their favorite: Taormina. Missing an uni pasta? Un(i)-thinkable.

Sea urchin pasta at Taormina

Taormina

My dish came out with more uni than I've ever seen on pasta. But when I took my first bite, the utter lack of uni flavor was shocking. I kept eating more and more, hoping to catch some briny sweetness, but the most I got was a taste resembling scrambled eggs. An off day perhaps—someone at the stove using less-than-fresh uni and cooking it too long?

Spaghetti ai ricci di mare at Arancino at Beachwalk

Arancino at Beachwalk

Since I was in Waikiki already, I headed over to Arancino at Beachwalk for an uni pasta that I hoped would wash out the taste of disappointment. I'm told that the uni pasta recipe here is the same as at Arancino at the Kahala, my favorite of the last roundup. Even so, at Beachwalk, the sauce tastes much heavier—or is it because it was my second plate of pasta of the night? Still, it tastes of uni, and that's all I wanted. And a glass of wine to wash it down.

I suppose the lesson here is that when it comes to uni, nothing is uni-form.