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I love sashimi. With COVID and a young toddler, it's much more difficult to get some Japanese sushi. Alternatively, I ended buying a small block of raw fish from my local Japanese supermarket. The quality was fairly good, but neither am I an expert at slicing the blocks of raw fish nor do I have a sharp enough knife to cleanly cut through the fish in one block. Still, buying the block from the Japanese supermarket is safer, more convenient, and cheaper than buying from a restaurant. Going through my Costco in South San Francisco, I happened to find Norwegian Salmon Sashimi in the freezer section. It's two servings of 6oz of pre-sliced sashimi.
Cost for Frozen Sashimi
The cost for the two 6 oz servings (a total of 12 oz) is $18.99 for Norwegian Salmon Sashimi by Wixter Seafood isn't particular cheap. This would also be my first time buying pre-sliced shashimi, which is another risk.
The exact same product by Wixter Seafood (but portioned in three 4oz servers) on Wixter Seafood's website goes for $26.99.
By comparison, the only frozen sashimi grade block of fish on Amazon was Yellowtail. So although this comparing salmon against yellowtail isn't the same, it's our closest Amazon comparison. This sashimi grade Yellowtail is sold in a pack for 3lb (48oz) for $119.99 + $49.99 for shipping (no free Amazon Prime shipping).
Preparation of Wixter Sashimi
Getting the salmon sashimi ready to eat from the freezer is fairly straightforward. Either open and let it defrost in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or defrost in a bowl of water for 15 minutes. That's it! I used the defrost in water for 15 minutes strategy for a quick last minute sashimi meal. I found that 15 minutes wasn't enough and would soak soak for 20 minutes to ensure the sashimi is fully defrosted.
The Sashimi Taste and Texture
The taste of the sashimi was very flavorful with no fishy smell. It was quite pleasant to eat and I quickly gobbled it up with the included soy sauce and wasabi.
However, freezing food generally has an affect on texture and that was the case with the Wixter Sashimi. The sashimi had a noticeable, but (very minorly so) mushy texture.
Next, the Wixter Sashimi was much more thinly sliced than I prefer. The sashimi I'm familiar with from Japanese restaurant and Japanese supermarkets are thicker cut. Towards the end of our first batch, we realized the sashimi goes well with some rice like nigiri sushi.
Conclusion: Wixter Sashimi
My preference is still t sashimi from either a Japanese restaurant (most pricey) to buying a block of sashimi from a Japanese grocery store and cutting it myself (less pricey). But both still require a trip out of the house, which isn't always convenient with a baby at home.
That being said, the Wixter Sashimi is the most convenient choice of ready-to-eat sashimi in less than 30 minutes, perfect for any busy lifestyle. For $19 at Costco, I would consider keeping a small box on hand for enhancing any meal. On one hand, I wish there were more fish options per box, as the whole box is only raw salmon sashimi.