Home > Categories > Food > Fish > Pacific Crown Tuna - Tom Yum review
Delicate pieces of premium tuna prepared according to a traditional Tom Yum recipe from Thailand.
The blend of Thai herbs, spicy lemongrass and chilli provides a unique culinary delight that is best served hot over rice or noodles.
A healthy source of Omega 3, Pacific Crown tuna is wild caught using dolphin friendly methods.
Product reviews...
I like a bit of spice in my food especially in winter so it was perfect lunch for a icy cold day. I had read the 9th er reviews and was kind of expecting to have my mouth burning so was feeling a bit anxious about trying g it but I found that it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
I cooked some rice and opened the tin and took the chilli off before adding to my rice, I like zing but that is just a bit too much. I took a small taste and wondered where the heat was, since I don't like rice on its own I did mix the rice and tuna together and ate another mouthful but still no heat. I found the heat after a few more mouthfuls but since I had a large glass of milk ready the burning feeling was only temporary and I was able to finish my lunch with most my milk drunk afterwards so it wasn't wasted.
I will be buying this again as I like a bit of spicy food to warm me up in winter but I will not be offering any to my kids as they are not as adventurous as I am when it comes to spicy food. I was really nervous about trying this but I am glad I did as it is rather yummy.
A quick and easy work lunch option for me is a small tin of tuna on toast as it's quick and easy to throw in my bag in the morning and easy to prepare at work. Therefore when I saw new and different flavoured tuna to try, I was keen to give it a go, because I do tend to get a bit bored with the same flavours every day.
Although I'd normally eat these little tins of tuna on toast, I saw that rice or noodles were recommended so I decided to take some extra time to pre cook some rice and then I just re-heated it at work with the tuna - easy peasy. I was pleased to find that for a small tin, there was still plenty of liquid to mix through over half a cup of cooked rice (I hate dry rice) and still a decent amount of tuna too.
I'm not familiar with lemon grass and so was surprised to find actual big chunks of what I can only assume was the lemon grass in there and these weren't pleasant to come across - I found myself having to pick them out, but I did enjoy the slight flavour they added. I'm also glad that I picked out the whole chilli as there was plenty of heat to the tuna already - probably way too much for me as even diluted with the rice, it was rather overpowering.
I have mixed feelings on this tuna as I do love that there are heaps of new and different flavours for me to try and add variety to my lunches, but this really wasn't one of my favourites and I probably wouldn't buy it again. It was edible but not overly enjoyable for me. And I can't see my daughter or husband liking this one at all due to the heat factor.
Oh this was soooo goooood. I have been away for the last few years, traveling through parts of Asia and India doing my Missionary service, and that meant learning to appreciate dishes and flavours like this. In some parts of the year it gets so hot that you need to sweat far more than usual in order to keep cool, but also to make sure you sweat out dirt and pathogens that can lodge in your pores. So eating really spicy foods over there is more than just a cultural habit, it is part of the health programme really.
I liked the flavours of lemongrass and chilli before I started travelling, but I learned to love them. Now I come home to New Zealand and I find products like this waiting to be claimed. It was such a lovely surprise to get given a few of these flavours to trial.
I really loved this one, it was very rich in flavour and had a good sharpness to it that I thought I would only find in a meal that had been hand cooked by a native. For a quick lunch while we were unpacking, my flatmate and I split the tin on a slice of toast each, with some cheese grilled on top. It was stunning, we were both very impressed by how good and authentic it tasted. Even if it did use tuna, which is not really a common fish in the poorer areas we travelled in.
We both agreed though that this variety was a bit more oily than the other one we tried, and that made it a little less pleasant to eat. We thought about draining the oil off first but quickly realised that it would take away most of the chilli oil too, which is a part we wanted to keep. Regardless of that, we plan to buy more of these and we'll mix it with grated cheese first to help corral some of the oils so they don't end up staining our shirts the way this one did.
I was pleased to be able to try out and review this Tom Yum flavor of tin tuna as I normally really enjoy flavored tuna with lots of different things and I also like to eat Asian flavored foods with a bit of spice to them.
I opened this tin and found that it looked a bit chunkier than I would have liked but it can be easily broken up if you prefer it that way like I do. I tried this out in a sandwich with some salad fixings like lettuce, carrot, etc. and thought that it tasted ok but not amazing. Personally I would probably choose some different flavors to this one next time I am buying some tinned tuna from the supermarket, as this flavor just didn't really do it for me taste wise. As it says on the tin, I do think that it would taste better served on rice or noodles as rather than being just flavored it has more of a sauce.
The other thing that I didn't like about this Tom Yum tinned tuna is that my children wouldn't eat it. Usually flavored tinned tuna is a really great option that is easy and quick to add to almost anything for a quick dinner for the kids but they don't like this flavor.
I like a good tinned tuna, and get quite a bit of it as I find that is the easiest way for me to have fish without trying to cook two meals for dinner, as my wife and youngest aren't keen on fish. This isn't a flavor I would typically buy, so this seemed a good way to try something new. I am really glad that I didn't end up buying this as it would have felt like a big waste of money. The price is low, yes, but it still would have felt like a waste.
Opening it up, it didn't look that appealing and I didn't get much of a smell of anything, which I thought was good at the time. I gave all three of my kids a very small taste and all three very promptly spat it out and I gave them all a small glass of milk to wash it down. I tried a couple of teaspoons and didn't like it at all, it was hard and chunky and the sauce just didn't taste good at all and I found it to be too hot from the chilli, throw in the big piece of ginger I bit into and I was put off finishing it.
I won't be buying this in the future.
Because I have never had Tuna at home and cooked with it I was rather at a loss of what to do so decided to experiement with Fritters. Because the cans are rather small did two batches up with the same ingredients of egg, flour, onion and used the Tom Yum Tuna in one and the Tuna Chunks in Spring Water in the other. Cooked seperately and then seperated on a platter with Rosemarry Potatoes.
We all loved the Tuna Chunks in Spring Water. They vanished pretty much straight away however both girls had one bite of the Tom Yum and quickly spat it out. My husband commented that you could taste the chilli and so I was silly and had a big bite which in retrospect was not the wisest thing to do. You can definitely taste the chilli and I have to say it is completely over powering and not that nice. I actually requested this more so for the lemongrass to which I could not taste at all instead the whole thing is overpowered with chillis.
This is the sort of meal you only want to have a small bit at a time unless of course you love your spicey chilli. It actually tastes a lot like a sweet chilli sauce flavour and to me it was too strong for my liking. I think I will pass on this one and will not be stocking in the pantry in the future.
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