27 Comments
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Jack Whalen's avatar

Made a couple hand rolls with your spicy ‘tuna’ tonight, w/sushi rice, cucumber, carrot, avocado… really delicious!

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

Thank you for trying the recipe! And I love a great hand roll, too. Do you make sushi often?

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Jack Whalen's avatar

not that often - there are great sushi restaurants to choose from in or near both places where we live (Oakland and Pioneertown), and so am very spoiled by eating out and take away

but now, since i love this carrot ‘tuna’ so much, and have lots of fresh carrots, cucumber, and avocado on hand, and also bought some nori and sushi rice, I guess I am now committed to making more at home lol

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Kalee Tilli's avatar

Our family has always been suspicious of spicy tuna rolls and now I know we were right to be. Thank you for this amazing tidbit of info. And as soon as the time presents itself, I will be trying these spicy carrot rolls!!

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

I'm curious, what made you initially suspicious?

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Kalee Tilli's avatar

My husband was the one who introduced me to sushi and he always felt that the mixture was less 'sushi' and more sauce, making it less desirable from a quality for your dollar perspective.

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

That was a great observation on his part! When I was first introduced to spicy tuna in school made from quality tuna, one thing I was told is that good spicy tuna never needs mayo. Mayo is (mostly) used to add the feeling of fattiness and mask the texture of the low quality frozen bagged stuff.

When I used to make spicy tuna, I never used mayo because I wanted people to still enjoy the texture and flavor of the tuna.

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Kalee Tilli's avatar

Yes! It's the mayo. He is suspicious of any sushi that has a mayo based filling or sauce.

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Ashley Bowling's avatar

this just blew my mind

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

Just a good reminder to be curious about what goes into your food!

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Izzie's avatar

Spicy tuna ranks right up there (or down there) with California roll for me. Nope to both.

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

What are some of your favorite sushi items to order? Nigiri? Maki? I'm always curious to hear about what sushi people enjoy the most!

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Infinte Cycle's avatar

one person's tuna scrape is another person's pink slime.

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

I think it's so important to know what you're getting as a consumer.

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Charlie's avatar

I honestly don't care cause it's yummy.

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

I get it. We all have those we love. Just sharing a little behind-the-scenes perspective from my sushi days. Thanks for reading!

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grelloh's avatar

Apart from it being low quality and maybe not tasting as nice, is it dangerous to consume?

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

Hi there. Thank you for this question and thank you for reading through to see what my red flags were.

I'm very much of the opinion that if you're going to be eating something uncooked, it should be very high quality because the lower the quality the higher the risk of getting sick. And I've found that many sushi bar goers assume they're getting high quality spicy tuna.

But having said that, the answer to your question is no, it's not generally dangerous to consume. It's as you said, low quality and not nearly as tasty.

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DangerouslyUnstable's avatar

No. This is food scare mongering of the same kind that brought us the "pink slime" scare of a decade ago.

I love spicy tuna rolls. They taste great. And I'm glad that they are able to make a tasty product with perfectly good food that would otherwise be thrown away. It means I get something delicious for cheaper, and less food gets wasted.

The fact that they have found a use for this is a GOOD THING. It actually makes me mad to read stories like this, as if food waste isn't already a big enough problem.

Our goal should be to use absolutely every ounce of an animal with as little waste as humanly possible. Demonizing creative ways to turn more animal products into food instead of waste is, in my opinion, immoral.

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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nb's avatar

Hi -- thanks for the recipe (and story!). I'm curious what the dish is in the 2nd photo? Is it fried egg or another ingredient, hand-molded into boats? What are the colorful delightful-looking fillings for them (I see a bright green roe that I couldn't name -- or it's a vegetarian recipe? -- and what look like sauteed mushrooms and lots of other things)? I'm fascinated -- is there a recipe, especially for the egg 'style' of presentation?

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

Hi there! Thank you for reading.

The second dish is inari sushi, fried and simmered tofu pouches filled with sushi rice and finished with assorted toppings. What I have pictured is also vegan - the egg is scrambled Just Egg. And what looks like roe is actually a wasabi flavored faux roe. The orange is the Spicy Carrot "Tuna" and the black topping is savory nori jam. And there's wilted spinach and radishes.

I haven't posted a recipe for these particular assorted inari sushi, but maybe I should! I have separate recipes for all the toppings, just not in one place.

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the Culinary Maven's avatar

Am I shocked no. Disappointed very much so.

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

I know. It is disappointing. This topic pops up from time to time in news, but rarely from a sushi chef's perspective. Usually the articles discuss whether tuna scrape is the sushi equivalent of pink slime or discuss a salmonella outbreak.

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Data Yap's avatar

Noooo, i usually love spicy tuna rolls!! Good to know now though!

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Marisa Baggett's avatar

I know. Spicy tuna tastes so good. And because you see the nice stuff in the case, it's easy to automatically assume that it's the same. That's kind of the bait and switch. If people don't ask, the sushi bar doesn't tell.

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Data Yap's avatar

Wow. Very eye-opening! Thanks for sharing about this

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