So we come to the snacks I wasn’t really looking forward to in my big box of Japanese goodies, the fishy ones.
I may not have been looking forward to eating them but they were exactly what I expected and hoped I’d get in a mystery Japanese food box – a bit weird and nothing like anything I can just buy in Tesco.
There were two fishy themed products, I have no clue what either is exactly so bear with!
I braved what I thought would be the worst first. That isn’t a picture on the front of the wrapper, it’s a little plastic window.. Yep, that is really how it looks…
It smelt worse than it looks, somehow. Now don’t get me wrong, I love eating fish, sushi is one of my top 3 meals but this had a pungent fishy aroma that did not smell good. I think this is supposed to be some sort of Jerky but instead of a tough dry feel it was sticky.
That’s not to say the actual meat is any softer, you don’t take a bite so much as you snap it with your teeth. It is pretty chewy once you’ve got a bit off though and the resemblance to jerky showed here.
The flavor started off not too shabbily actually, it has a sort of sauce coating which explains the stickiness, that tasted a lot of soy or Teryaki sauce. This was good, just as addictive on jerky as it is on legit salmon and I really enjoyed it.
Once I’d sucked the sauce off things went downhill rapidly. It is very, very, very, very fishy. I can’t emphasize enough how fishy this is. The fishiest thing I’ve ever tasted and I like fish! Did I tell you? It’s reeeeeally fishy. I normally like quite a strong fish flavour, after all what’s the point if you can’t taste it? You might as well have chicken. But this was bad fishy, like when you go past a fish counter in the supermarket and the fish that’s been sitting on quickly melting ice is getting a bit funky… Not good!
These stunk just as badly. God why does dried fish smell so awful? My dogs love tinned fish and I ate this locked away in the dining room. Within seconds of ripping the corner of the packet they were literally scratching the door. The smell is that strong they smelt it from the other side of the house.
I kind of expected the smell with the other product as it was sticky and had a bit of moisture to it, but this looks and feels like paper. It wasn’t to the extreme of the previous fish “treat” but it was very very chewy, just like you’d think fish jerky would be.
Thank God it didn’t taste as fishy as it smelt. Never before have I been so pleased to find something that tastes like cardboard. It did have a very slight fishy flavor but it was nothing compared to what I anticipated, and actually had a weirdly sweet flavor for most of the chew.
It’s the best of a bad bunch but I don’t think this is one I’ll be seeking out again any time soon.
I’m glad I got to try these but they’re a bit too different for my taste buds!
