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REVIEW – Bumble Bee Seared Ahi Tuna (Frozen)

June 30, 2016 | Post a Comment













 

My boyfriend and I just noticed Costco had this frozen "sushi quality" seared ahi tuna a few weeks ago. We both like raw ahi tuna in sushi so these seemed like a good find for us, and we snatched it up!

The package from Costco came in four sealed portions, and it was very easy to prepare: just take it out of the vacuum pack, and thaw it in the refrigerator! However, the instructions said to thaw it in the refrigerator for three hours, which we did... and it was still really frozen. In fact, it was still partially frozen after about 5-6 hours of sitting in the fridge... so we ended up thawing it for an extra hour in room temperature the first time. The next time we had it, we thawed it closer to eight hours in the refrigerator. 

We were very happy to find this because it tasted deeelicious! It was seared on the outside with a nice seasoning: a good combination of pepper and soy sauce. It had an overall smooth, savory taste. It also didn't have a strong sour taste that ahi tuna sometimes has. One portion comes pre-sliced in about twelve small slices, which was good for the two of us to share as a side. 

Unfortunately, when we went back to Costco last week, we weren't able to find it again.. but it looks like some Safeway stores in our area carry it.. so we will try finding it there next!

Overall Rating:



Food: BumbleBee SuperFresh Seared Ahi Tuna (Frozen)

Source: Costco, Tucson, AZ

Rating: Delicious

REVIEW – Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Chicken Shoyu Ramen (Frozen)

Category: Costco

March 12, 2016 | 20 Comments






 



 

We tried some of Ajinomoto's frozen Chicken Shoyu (soy sauce) Ramen from Costco. 

The box of ramen contained four frozen noodle bowls, individually packaged…  which is nice because it means one less thing to be washed in the dishwasher. 😛 

Following the instructions, a frozen ramen bowl was super easy to prepare… just fill water up to the fill line in the bowl and microwave it for 5-6 minutes. The only thing of note is to spread out the water a little bit when pouring it over the noodles or the noodles might end up getting clumped. 

The ramen broth tasted pretty good; it had a light soy sauce and chicken broth flavor. The corn was also sweet, and the noodles were a little bit al dente. 

The picture of the bowl on the box was actually somewhat accurate (in terms of the count of each item) -- the ramen soup came with exactly one piece of broccoli, five-ish pieces of chicken, two red peppers, and a little bit of corn and carrot, along with the noodles. 

Even though it all tasted good, there wasn't enough for a whole meal for me; I was still hungry afterward.  The soup could have used more of everything -- chicken, vegetables, and noodles.

And it probably isn't a good idea to drink all the broth, either.  Even though the broth tasted good and didn't taste too salty to me,  one bowl of it contains 96% of your USRDA of sodium.

Overall Rating:



Food: Ajinomoto Tokyo Style Chicken Shoyu Ramen 

Source: Costco, Tucson, AZ

Rating: Good

20 Comments / Post a Comment

REVIEW – Dao Modern Asian Cuisine (Mason, OH): California Roll, Dragon Roll, Tempura Udon Noodle Soup

Category: Restaurant

June 26, 2015 | Post a Comment










 

My mom and went out to eat at Dao Modern Asian Cuisine in Mason, OH. It was a Friday night, and while there were a few sets of customers, it didn't seem very busy. My mom and I shared a California roll and dragon roll as appetizers, and I had tempura udon soup as my meal.

The California roll was just fine, but it was a little bit warm, perhaps because it was next to the dragon roll. The dragon roll had tempura shrimp on the inside, and the shrimp was pretty good, and nice & crunchy. The shrimp went well with the sweet eel sauce. However, I did find there were bits of shrimp shell still on the shrimp   

Shrimp shell in the dragon roll

I also noticed that some of the dishes they used for our food were broken. The corner of the shrimp and vegetable tempura plate was broken as well as bowl for the tempura sauce.

Broken bowl of tempura sauce


The udon noodle soup had a nice, tasty broth. It had a very slight hint of sweetness, and it wasn't overly salted. I liked the slightly sweet taste, and as the amount of soup decreased, the sweeter the soup became. The udon noodles in the soup were also good and had a good noodle texture.
The tempura that came with the soup included shrimp tempura and different vegetable tempura like zucchini, sweet potato, and broccoli. The zucchini tempura didn't have much taste. I didn't really care much for the broccoli tempura or the shrimp tempura, either. The shrimp in the shrimp tempura was kind of dry. I liked the taste of the slightly sweet tempura sauce, however, it was a little watery and when I used it with the tempura, the taste didn't last long so it didn't help much.  However, I really enjoyed the sweet potato tempura; the taste of the sweet potato went really well with the fried batter.

Overall Rating:



Food: California Roll, Dragon Roll, Tempura Udon Soup

Source: Dao Modern Asian Cuisine Restaurant, Mason, OH

Rating (California Roll): OK

Rating (Dragon Roll): OK (would be good without the shrimp shell bits)

Rating (Udon Noodle Soup): Good

Rating (Shrimp, Zucchini, Broccoli Tempura, Tempura Sauce): OK

Rating (Sweet Potato Tempura): Delicious