sea squirt

今日の英語もReader's Digest 5月号の韓国料理の記事にあったものです。
While my less-adventurous countrymen settled down to their meat and two veg, Koreans are at the cutting edge of the culinary arena, serving up a feast of sea squirts and deer antler tea, alongside plates of kimchi, rice and deliciously spicy soups.
"sea squirts" の "squirt" は結構頻出する単語で、" cause (a liquid) to be ejected from a small opening in a thin, fast stream or jet: cause (a liquid) to be ejected from a small opening in a thin, fast stream or jet" を意味する動詞で使われている場合が多いので、"sea squirts" は海水を噴出す生物のはずです。　貝類、イカ、タコも対象となる気もしますが、まず辞書を見ます。
・Vocabulary: ascidian that can contract its body and eject streams of water
・American Heritage Dictionary: Any of various sedentary tunicates of the class Ascidiacea, having a transparent sac-shaped body with two siphons. Also called ascidian.
動植物は辞書ではイメージがはっきりしないので Wikipedia（Ascidiacea (commonly known as the ascidians or sea squirts)の項）を見るとこんな記述があります。
Various Ascidiacea are used as food. Sea pineapple (Halocynthia roretzi) is cultivated in Japan (hoya, maboya) and Korea (meongge) and, when eaten raw, has been described by Lonely Planet as tasting like "rubber dipped in ammonia". The peculiar flavor is attributed to an unsaturated alcohol called cynthiaol.
The Korean fish stew agujjim traditionally contains the tunicate Styela clava. According to the LA Weekly, "they are actually farmed in parts of Korea, and sea squirt bibimbap is a specialty of Geojae-do island, not far from Masan."
日本や韓国では食用にされるとなると、の "squirt" はホヤの事かなと思いますが、あまりホヤを食べる事はないし、韓国人の食べる "sea squirt" と日本のホヤが同じかどうかは、韓国の食生活に詳しい方に聞かないと分かりませんね。