One Kiwi diver has gone viral after enjoying some fresh Aotearoa seafood and confusing people from all over the world by doing it.
The kid goes by Māori Moa on his social accounts, and he posted a video of him picking up a kina, chucking it straight in his mouth and slurping it down like it’s nothing.
“Better feed that to the dog,” he wrote in the caption of the TikTok which has racked in a massive 2.2 million likes and 41 million views.
Comments were filled with lots of people, seeming to be from oversea, being some mixture of confused, intrigued, and/or disgusted.
“What does that taste like?” asked one person with many questions. “I can’t decide if I’m excited by this or grossed out. What is the texture like? Is it salty? Slimy? A bit chewy?”
“What in the world was that?” said another.
“I thought that was a piece of fried fish,” a third added.
“Tell you what cuz you ate that like a pro eah,” a Kiwi commenter added. “That stuff would make me throw it up real quick.”
Many commenters on the TikTok shared that they have the same thing in their country, but they'd actually be referencing a different breed of sea urchin as Kina is endemic to Aotearoa.
The international audience does seem to be really fascinated by the kina, as a few of Māori Moa’s showing off the Kiwi sea animal have gained millions of views. In fact, his whole TikTok is jam-packed with him hunting, cracking open, and eating the Kina.
Good on Māori Moa for showing off a uniquely Kiwi food to the world and having a good time doing it.
