Spinial

Spinial is called the technique of preserving some shells (pins, bubbles) in seawater. In Kalymnos due to the sponge, the spinal cord has been identified mainly with bubble.

The divers of the island as they dived for the sponges met them bubbles, shells that are difficult to catch, because they are well camouflaged on rocks. The people of Kalymnos could easily distinguish them and together with the sponges they brought them to the boat. There, soft as a hard sponge like the bubbles, they opened them with a transverse knife and there their wonderful yellow-orange contents were revealed.

During their trip the sponges took with them the bottles full of commercial resin (Kourtakis, Malamatina) to accompany their daily food and returned them full again with the bubble spin.

They sterilized the bottles and placed the contents of the bubble in them, after slicing it, together with seawater from the bubbles themselves, a little extra salt and a little olive oil, which covered the zoumaki and did not let the air come in contact with the seafood. water and alter the bubbles, and watered hermetically (the so-called spinal).

It is always interesting the art with which the cork was sealed - with the two-tone rope, and cross-knitting - to secure the contents.

The meze of the bubble spinach with oil and onion It is unbeatable, although very special due to its distinctive intense iodine and slightly bitter taste that differentiates it from all marine relatives in the category of shellfish.

Remember that the bubble spinal cord - like all seafood, oysters, mussels, combs, glosses, horseshoes, pins, bubbles - belongs to the category of so-called "Aphrodisiac foods", whose etymology has its roots in the beauty goddess Aphrodite and which are considered to contain zinc, which enhances testosterone production and libido!