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Back in college, before the Macintosh and VHS, I tried sea urchin, one of nature's stranger edibles, in a sushi restaurant located in the basement of a Vancouver, B.C. hotel. Goofy-faced and swooning, exclaiming it tasted like the ocean in a cloud. It wasn't my thing.

Since then, I've learned to accept the ancestral, primitive bugger's taste. It tastes more like the ocean than mussels, with their blue brininess, or even oysters, which run a close second. At it's best: sea urchin is subtle, sweet, creamy, and sea-salty rather than fishy - like making out with Daryl Hannah when she played a mermaid, or something.

Marrow Kitchen and Bar, Tacoma's new wonder kid, added a scallop dish with sea urchin sauce, spinach spaghetti and black sea salt to its impressive fall menu. The perfectly cooked scallops are served in a creamy, garlicky sauce, which only hints of sea urchin. Don't let your fear of sea urchin stop you from enjoying this marvelous dish. Texture is the star of this production with crisp, pan-seared plump scallops and al dente spaghetti.

I also gave the gnocchi tots and farrotto dishes a go.

The combination of melt-in-your-mouth lightly breaded gnocchi and the baconized horseradish sauce cream sauce produce a dish whose taste consumes your memory long after the plate has been removed.

Think of Marrow's farrotto - mixed with sugar pumpkin, spinach, Beechers Flagship, Passilla pepper and balsamic - as an updated risotto: you get all the wintry comfort of the dish, minus the starchy heaviness. If you love sweet pumpkin, here you go.

Marrow's fall menu is below for your perusal.

[Marrow Kitchen and Bar, 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 2717 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.267.5299]