Just wanna liven up the posts, I know they aren't canned but what an excellent meal.

Only complaint is that it isnt a pull tab and had to open with a manual can opener.

The eel is tender with a bite similar to sardines, same with the abundance of soft bones that smear with your bite.

The sauce was sweet and savory, this would slap if you put it in the air fryer and then on top of rice.

For it being 3$, this will have to be added to the rotation.

Highly recommend

This is the absolute pinnacle of tuna in butter! This is several steps above their Albacore Tuna belly in butter. This is fatty, tender, melt in your mouth and barely registers as tuna at this point. The flavor is intense.and deep and the texture reminds me more of a perfectly cooked brisket the way it comes apart and the mouth feel. It is an absolutely stunning experience that had me reduced to making mmm noises! This was hard to get my hands on, but 100% worth the effort! This now ranks amongst the highest tier of tins I've had and I will be hunting them from now on! Served with a thick cut, toasted slice of rosemary parmesan cheese loaf to soak up all the butter, this receives my highest possible recommendation!

I picked this tin up a while back when I first saw the Diplomats brand appear at World Market. It was an impulse buy, I think they were $4.99 and they sounded interesting so I thought what the hell. Honestly, not bad! I'm not a huge fan of brislings, but these were ok. A little bit of a fishy after taste with some bites more than others. There was a ton of sauce, and it was fine. Reminiscent of a frozen dinner or a cheap Indian buffet is my best comparison. Not a lot of spice notes, tomatoey and a little creamy. That being said, nothing tasted bad or unpleasant here! All in all, for a $5 tin, I wasn't disappointed and may check out the other flavor options Diplomats offer from time to time. I'll give these little guys a 7.3/10.

Here is my ranking this week:

1. Güeyu Mar - Chargrilled Sardine Loins - Top tier olive oil, delicious meaty fish; best part is the crunchy spines. I’m really splitting hairs here, but since I reviewed the tails tin previously, I’ll note I still prefer tails to loins by a small margin because the fish is slighty more firm.

2. Waitrose - No.1 Peppered Mackerel - Large filet, lightly smoked and somewhat tough but with pleasantly fatty bits. The strength of this tin is that when it says peppered it really means it. If you dig a bite so peppery it’s almost crunchy, this is one to try!

3. La Bonne Mer - Salmon in olive oil - This was a new offering at my local World Market. Fish is super tender with a buttery finish.

4. Marypo - Icelandic Cod Liver - If you’re a cod liver fan, I found this one at a great price! I don’t want to bias anyone, but I struggle with the armoma a bit. However, the oil in this one is surprisingly nice and the liver itself is super rich with a texture that melts in the mouth. My recommendation is to use it as one would a pate, on some crisp toast or hearty cracker to cut the richness.

5. Grilled Catch - Brisling Sardines in olive oil with chili pepper - Worthy contender if enjoy a smoky sprat. I appreciate the subtle heat provided by the whole peppers. Fish was a bit mushy for my preference.

Never had skate fish.

At first, I thought it was a rip off because there seemed to be only a few pieces in the can but it turned out they were layered and were thinner than expected.

Box says olive oil and curry but I get no curry flavor.

The fish was somewhat firm and pretty tasty! More “fishy” than I expected (but not in a bad way). I thought they reminded me a bit of eel like you get at the sushi joint but my wife said it reminded her of cod and I think this is more accurate.

Interesting aftertaste. It was somewhat firm familiar but I couldn’t place it but settled on a Gruyère or other cheese-type finish. Not strong, mind you. Barely noticeable.

I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Depending on the price, I’d buy it again (I think I paid a premium at one of the wineries out here.)

First time I hade sardines from this brand. Very nice.
Mouettes d’Arvor Sardines de Saison, millesime 2024.
Paired with an excellent geuze from 3 Fonteinen. Gold blend no. 55 bottled in 2022.

I was reluctant to try this for breakfast, I love Polar kipper snacks just on thier own. But this hands down one of my new favorite breakfast meals. I love this more than regular bacon.

Pictured: Toasted and buttered local sourdough, over medium eggs and Polar kipper snacks. 🤤

I picked this can up because we are having a heat wave and I don’t want to cook anything complex and these were new to my local World market.

Flavor: 9.5/10
The flavor of fish was pretty mild and the sauce was super rich and flavorful, and as you can see it’s pretty fatty. The only thing docking it that half point is the level of salt. I’m a huge salt person I live off of it so to speak, and even I think it’s slightly too salty. Now is that a terrible thing? No but it might not be everyone’s jam

Texture: 10/10
I think these fish have by far the best texture I’ve ever come across in a tinned fish, I’m not sure if it’s because they fry them first or what, but it’s super tender, flaky, and not even the slightest bit mushy.

Usability: 7/10
Here’s the one place I will dock some points to be fair. Because of that thick layer of solid fat (it’s over 100 out and it was still solid), it basically bottlenecks it into being eaten hot. Which mind you is tasty but makes it less versatile.

Overall thoughts:
By far my favorite can I’ve had in a while, and at 4.99 a can these will definitely be entering my rotation. I want to try some of the other flavors but none of them spoke to me as much as this one did with the exception of the sriracha can.

Apologies in advance for getting distracted and forgetting to photograph the tangle of anchovies in the tin

So recently I got a (sort of) mystery can of “Paper-Wrapped” sardines with Lemon from Cost Plus World Market and I compared them in quality and flavor to Nuri. (Which is also wrapped in paper just to be confusing.) With the exception that the “Paper-Wrapped” can had actual lemon flavor. Now I’ve had Nuri “Special Lemon Edition” before but I didn’t post about it. I wanted to try it again.

It’s as good as you can expect from any can of sardines in olive oil from Nuri. The fish flakes apart, soft but not mushy, delectably oily rather than dry. It does have some spine bits for a spine enjoyer like myself. The oil is of bread-sopping plate-licking quality, particularly paired with my 2nd best balsamic vinegar and a Shallot & Tarragon seasoning mix.

It has a sizable piece of lemon at the bottom of the can… which, while obviously an actual piece of actual lemon, does not taste of anything but the sardine infused oil it’s sitting in.

There is no detectable lemon flavor, no matter how hard I try to look for it with every bite.

Well, at least the wrapper is pretty, and it was the same price as a regular can of Nuri at the cost plus world market, where I got it from.

Bar Harbor petit sardines with salt.

Unsure how I feel about this tin, some of them were really good while others were a mush.

I added lime juice to them and then they were a treat. For 5.50$ they are not worth it when for 6-7$ you can get a whole pound of mussels meat and have a great time.

Good if on clearance though.