May Wah Vegetarian Seafood

All of my friends, meat-eaters and vegetarian, looked at me like I was crazy for even trying vegetarian seafood. And maybe for good reason. But I was curious.

Fish Fingers- Or, as we call them in the U.S., fish sticks. These were breaded and fried, so all I did was pop them in the oven for a while. Not exact replicas of fish by any means, more like stick-shaped chicken nuggets with the tiniest bit of oceany taste. But not bad, especially with ketchup or tartar sauce. I'm not planning on getting these again, but they were decent.

Belt Fish- I'm not sure what I was hoping for with this one. The Yabba Pot had a curry fish stew recently that was delicious, so I guess I was trying to find whatever "fish" they'd used, and the belt fish looked the most similar. White "fish fillets" with a bit of seaweed "skin". The look and texture were good, but I just did not like the taste at all, couldn't even finish a bite. Much like the spiced chicken legs, I didn't like the smell as soon as I cut open the package. Maybe if I chopped them up and cooked in a curry sauce...no, I think the Yabba Pot used something different. The search goes on.

Tuna-  This was a pinkish, shredded protein. No fishy flavour and a little more chickeny/chewy in texture than real tuna. But mixed with the ingredients for your favorite tuna salad or chicken salad, it's not at all bad on a sandwich. I've gotten about the same results using rehydrated TVP or even mashed canned chickpeas to replace the tuna in tuna salad recipes.

Crab Roll- I grew up in Baltimore and ate large amounts of steamed crabs, crab soup, and crab cakes back in the day. That fake krab stick stuff (which is actually made out of a fish slurry and not vegetarian-friendly at all) was never big with my family, since the real stuff was plentiful. But I've always been curious when friends order California Rolls, so I thought I'd try. The look was pretty spot on, pure white "flesh" with bright reddish-orange sides. But the texture wasn't grainy or meaty or crab-like, it was more like rubbery, smooshy nothingness. Seriously, there was almost no flavour at all, and I didn't like the tiny bit of flavour that came through. I tried these drenched in butter, covered in Old Bay spice, but I still couldn't eat more than a nibble. I've only found two good crab substitutes so far. One is the zuchinni-based vegetarian crabcakes at Gertrude's (the restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art). The other is a vegetarian crabcake I made using a traditional Maryland crabcake recipe with Old Bay, vegan Worcestershire sauce and Match vegetarian crabmeat (here and here). That Match stuff is amazing...I'll post of review of their products eventually.


Sauce Cate Eel- One of my friends in always going on about how amazing cooked eel sushi is, and I never tried eel when I ate meat, so I'm a little curious. This one is still in my freezer, but I'll post a review soon.