freezer sushi

nice to have your presence back in my discussions :) welcome back! you're right about the sashimi, however i'll upgrade your definition of sushi, by adding that it doesn't HAVE TO include raw fish, or any fish at all. tempura is indeed a type of fried batter which typically goes on shrimp and veggies. since sushi became so popular outside of japan, now you can find varieties with just about anything in them. believe it or not i have had a peanut butter sushi roll (or 'maki'), a sicilian maki (with cheese and cappicoli!...i don't like either ingredient but i loved this sushi flavor!), and a dessert maki that had sliced green apple and skor bar, topped with green tea ice cream blobs. so, you can also get sushi maki that contains tempura flakes (for crunchiness), a typical one is called kamikaze, which either incorporates the flakes of fried batter, or puffed rice. as well, some maki contain tempura'd shrimp! :) this is the kind i tried from the freezer section. i too am not keen on frozen meals with shrimp in them. come to think of it, i don't really enjoy most fishy types of tv dinners. i find the fish has a weird taste, especially salmon. i guess pad thai sounds a bit strange as a frozen dish as well, due to the texture of the noodles. but if you liked it... ;) i am very picky about pad thai and generally don't eat it unless it's from my favorite thai/cambodian restaurant, or if it's homemade by my mom ;)

Oh, the pad thai noodles were more blasphemous than frozen - they were microwavable! They come in a cute little "chinese take out" box, with the sauce, topping and noodles seperately packaged. I seasoned and stir-fried some chicken and ginger, then mixed that with the microwaved noodles and sauce - it was surprisingly good. The noodles stood up to the microwave just fine. I'm now officially confused on the whole sushi thing. It sounds like anything goes with that category. Cooked or raw, seafood or not -what the heck? Is "sushi" just a cool sounding, very marketable word?! P.S. it's great to be a part of your discussions again, as well! I bet you didn't think that frozen sushi called for this much thought, hunh? LOL

oh you cheated with your pad thai! mixing in your own fresh ingredients will always pick up that microwaveable food ;) as for sushi, in recent years, yes anything goes! as long as it is wrapped in or sitting on rice people can call it sushi, i guess. for me though, the best ones are the 'futomaki' which are basically very overstuffed fatter sushi rolls. these ones are really for the sushi pig, coz it's hard to pop a whole piece in your mouth without looking like one ;) and they usually have a lot of different yummy ingredients and textures mixed together. for example, a carb, a fish, a veggie and a sauce all in one roll...that's a complete meal sushi :D

crazy isn't it? i've had rice in other tv dinners, and it was alright, though definitely not my first choice of side dish in a microwave meal! but like you say, the stickiness of sushi rice is part of the 'yum'! i can't imagine that a freezer variety could work...are they using some sort of stabilizers? who knows! i WILL try this just to see, and let you know! :)

so finally i tried it! :) i'm happy to report that i'd buy it again, over the fridge variety any day! i don't know about any other flavors, but the shrimp tempura one was actually really good! savoury! rice that didn't fall apart and retained its moisture! oh my! i just wish there was a bigger portion, and that the tempura stayed crispy. otherwise, not a bad deal for a quick sushi fix!

i will try it just out of curiosity...and post my thoughts! thz for responding!

i'm sure we all prefer the fresh stuff from a resto ;) however i must admit to buying sushi 'on the run' from grocery stores. some of them actually are made on the spot and are still warm when you pick up the packet. but this is only in really good and high turnover grocery stores. the microwaveable type i tried turns out to be cheaper than the fridge variety sold at the same store. for example, i usually get 200g for 3.99 to 6.99 depending on whether it's veggie, tuna, salmon, etc. this freezer version cost me 2.99 for 200g. i realized this week that it was a promotion, and that the normal cost is in fact 3.50$. but that is still cheaper than the fridge version for some reason.

you're right, the best sushi is the freshest sushi! but guess what i'm eating as i type this? the famous freezer sushi by president's choice brand! and ya know, it's not half bad! i prefer it to the typical fridge sushi you can get pre-made in certain to-go counters or grocery stores. the rice is NOT dry believe it or not. it's moist! not as sticky as fresh sushi rice, but at least it's not crumbly (shudder). i bought the shrimp tempura variety and it's quite savoury! only down size is that the tempura is a bit mushy, so you can't really tell it's even tempura. and the shrimp had this sort of vague fishy taste, like i couldn't be sure if it was shrimp, scallops, crab or squid! and for those who are scared of stinky fish smelling-sushi, this doesn't have any of it! the freezer variety has quite a nice light smell, mostly of sesame seeds and a hint of wasabi. it's just the TASTE of the shrimp which is vague...i didn't mean to make it sound as though it was stinky, coz it ain't ;)