Super-frozen Bigeye tuna sashimi and Kampachi 超冷凍メバチ鮪とカンパチのさしみ

As I mentioned in the boiled octopus post, we got super-frozen bigeye tuna and kampachi from a new place called "Fish for Sushi". The picture below shows the sashimi I served for New Year's eve along with the octopus we got from them.

The picture below is what I served in the evening on New Year’s day. Instead of regular daikon garnish I served daikon namasu 大根なます with ikura and also added kazunoko 数の子 with bonito flakes.

The fish came in a styrofoam box with plenty of dry ice.  The left in the picture below is super-frozen (bigeye) tuna and the right is "kampachi (belly loin). The instructions on how to thaw the tuna were slightly different from the ones listed on their website and on the label (temperature and duration of initial treatment). I followed the one on the package. The kampachi loin did not come with any specific instructions. So, I just thawed it quickly in the package soaked in running cold water. I wrapped both the tuna and kampachi in paper towels and placed on a plate in the refrigerator.



The kampachi thawed rather quickly but the tuna took more than 5 hours, probably better to leave it 12 hours (overnight). After it was thoroughly thawed, I wrapped in parchment paper and placed it in a Ziploc bag. It keeps up to 3 days after thawing in the meat case of the refrigerator.

In terms of taste, as far as "akami" or red meat of tuna goes, this was rather good but nothing beats "toro" and "chutoro" we can get from Catalina. It is far superior to "yellowfin frozen tuna" treated with CO. The kampachi was good but you may have to clean it up by removing some small bones and the remnants of skin. We still prefer tuna from Catalina but this is a good second source for sashimi fish.