Pottarga/Karasumi Taste Test 日本の唐墨とサルジニアのボタルガの味比べ

We enjoyed the fresh uni and karasumi 唐墨 from Maruhide 丸秀 a few days ago. We decided that while we still had some of the karasumi left, we would get some Sardinian bottarga and have a taste test. The last time we tried Sardinian bottarga was 11 years ago. The brand we bought back then was called bottarga Di Muggine from L’Oro di Cabras, Sardinia, Italy. We tried another one this time. The one we got is called “Sardinian Gold” from “Bottarga Brothers” through Amazon market place (picture #1, right). In terms of the price, the karasumi is 3.5 times more expensive than the bottarga. The color of this bottarga is about the same as the karasumi. I remembered that the bottarga we previously bought was darker in color and stronger in taste compared to Japanese karasumi I had eaten back then. The information brochure that came with the bottarga we just bought stated that when bottarga is exposed to air, the color it becomes darker and the taste becomes stronger.  So, to prevent that from happening, I separated the sacs and vacuum packed one for later use.

I sliced both and slightly toasted them. We had them with cold sake. In the picture #2, the left is karasumi and the right is bottarga. As you can see the bottarga is larger in size but the color is exactly the same. Both tasted good and about the same. We like this “Sardinian bottarga gold”.

Of course we needed some more items to go with the sake. In the picture #3, from left to right are karasumi/bottarga, squid shiokara イカの塩辛, Russian marinated salmon 鮭のロシア漬 with pickled cucumber topped with ikura, and daikon namasu 大根なます with slices of boiled octopus leg and also topped with ikura. The boiled octopus legs came from Weee (originated from China). This is excellent and as close as I can think of to a Japanese prepared boiled octopus leg. All these small dishes went so well with cold sake.

*Digression Alert: Although Sardinian bottarga is most well known, other cultures also make similar fish roe (usually gray mullet roe), salt cured and then dried under the sun. A small pamphlet came with our bottarga included the other types of bottarga the company sells which included Greek, Egyptian, French (two kinds) and Brazilian.  Japan, Korea and Chinese also make their versions.