Looking for Surimi Lovers (and Haters)

Surimi lover here. Well, not so much since I had to go low-carb to control diabetes, but I always dug the flavor and would buy fake crab nuggets as a finger-snack. I think I had it first in a "crab" salad and liked it.

LOVE it.

I likes it, I does.

I do the fake-crab finger-snack thing, too.

I find that it tastes ok in it's own right, but it's no substitute for real shellfish; it's not egregious texture-wise (most substitutes are), but it tends to be too sweet and lack depth and complexity in terms of flavor.

Growing up in MD I can remember (vaguely) having my first California roll and being told I would like it b/c it had crab, avocado and cucumber in it; all things I liked. When it showed up and I tried it, it was fine but I definitely announced that it wasn't crab.

I like and continue to eat California rolls but ever since I learned that fake crab was mostly Pollock I've referred to it as such.

I have a fondness for certain kinds of surimi that I enjoyed in Japanese cuisine. Kamoboko slices don't turn me off with their unnatural pink coloring. And I sometimes buy chikua at the local Asian market. It's a nostalgia thing from when I spent a couple of years living in Japan. I generally avoid "krab" salads, however; no nostalgia there.

BTW, in Japan I saw surimi translated as "steamed fish paste." If I hadn't eaten it before learning that, I might never have tried it.

Oops. Make that "kamaboko."

It's in my favorite summer salad, a brick of fake crab, boiled potatoes, mixed greens, tomatoes, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar dressing.

It's tasty. Definitely not a full replacement of shellfish but it definitely has its uses. I'm korean so mostly I've had it in the Korean sushi equivalent, kimbab. It's like sushi but with veggies and this or meat instead of raw fish on the inside. I used to dislike it more when I was younger, probably because the texture can be kinda iffy sometimes but its grown on me. I don't know if fishcake balls, or odeng, counts in this category but I like those too. Same story as the surimi though, didn't like the texture when I was young but it has its place now, mostly either fried or in some kind of soup.

Sounds pretty much the same as Gefilte fish.

maybe the time has come for the emergence of Asian-yiddish fusion cuisine!

I like it a lot. I tear it up and mix it with mayo and sriracha and wrap it in nori for a snack.

Are you saying I don't have to feel guilty about eating it? Because I have been.

My son, who is 5, eats surimi "crab popsicles" straight out of the freezer.

I've been in fisheries science. I've seen the process. I've seen the diseased fish that go into the process, as well as rotten ones preserved in nitrate, and I think it's probably cat food, at best.

I don't eat much fish anywhere, and particularly not at fast food places, since it is labeled only as "fish" or given a trade name (remember "orange roughy"?).

They taste like nothing much to me-I can easily do without