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Nissui Whole Sardines in Sweet Soy Sauce (Iwashi Ajitsuke)
$3.50
“Sweet and spicy soy sauce finish” is the tagline.
Aji-tsuke is a classic flavoring combination in Japan – soy sauce,
sake, mirin and sugar. These tins don’t actually have sake or mirin in
them, but it’s the thought that counts.
These are Thai fish, canned in Japan.
The can reads “Delicious blue fish for the body” (In English, we’d say “for
health” rather than “for the body”).
Really fun tin. Great sardine texture for this style, a little softer but in a good “this soaked up the sauce nicely” way. I was curious if the sauce would be too sweet but it but didn’t come across that way at all over rice. Mild flavor yet enough to notice, providing the ideal amount of moisture in each bite. The sauce wasn’t tremendously complex so I’d probably add just a little bit of heat (chili crisp?) or furikake next time to provide an additional element of interest, but I did enjoy it even without.
Absolutely worth keeping a tin of this (and the Nissui mackerel in miso) in your pantry for those days when you have a little bit of leftover rice from the night before.
Greg L (verified owner)–
I can’t really recommend these. Are they bad? No. But I just don’t think they’re worth buying when considering all the other fish around. The tin was filled with three rather large, nice looking sardines. I did as instructed by the paper that came with the tin and heated them up until steaming and put them on some warm rice. It was fine. The soy flavor was mild. The sweetness was slightly present. The sardines had a decent texture, but were a little on the dry side. The flavor was pretty mild, nearly bland. If you want this flavor profile in a quick, easy dish, I’d rather get a different sardine and top it with a better sauce (Japanese eel sauce would work great) on the rice.
fishday (verified owner)–
Agree with the other reviews. We enjoyed it over warm rice. The taste is exactly how you would imagine a sardine in soy would taste and not too, too much beyond that. Of the three of us, one person thought it was great, one thought good and one didn’t think too much of it. So who knows!
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Hream McDan (verified owner) –
Really fun tin. Great sardine texture for this style, a little softer but in a good “this soaked up the sauce nicely” way. I was curious if the sauce would be too sweet but it but didn’t come across that way at all over rice. Mild flavor yet enough to notice, providing the ideal amount of moisture in each bite. The sauce wasn’t tremendously complex so I’d probably add just a little bit of heat (chili crisp?) or furikake next time to provide an additional element of interest, but I did enjoy it even without.
Absolutely worth keeping a tin of this (and the Nissui mackerel in miso) in your pantry for those days when you have a little bit of leftover rice from the night before.
Greg L (verified owner) –
I can’t really recommend these. Are they bad? No. But I just don’t think they’re worth buying when considering all the other fish around. The tin was filled with three rather large, nice looking sardines. I did as instructed by the paper that came with the tin and heated them up until steaming and put them on some warm rice. It was fine. The soy flavor was mild. The sweetness was slightly present. The sardines had a decent texture, but were a little on the dry side. The flavor was pretty mild, nearly bland. If you want this flavor profile in a quick, easy dish, I’d rather get a different sardine and top it with a better sauce (Japanese eel sauce would work great) on the rice.
fishday (verified owner) –
Agree with the other reviews. We enjoyed it over warm rice. The taste is exactly how you would imagine a sardine in soy would taste and not too, too much beyond that. Of the three of us, one person thought it was great, one thought good and one didn’t think too much of it. So who knows!