Type: Chicken of the Sea, Wild-Caught Sardines in Water (3.75oz/106g)
Number: 12 fish
Review: Eaten plain, it simply tastes like... a fish. As expected, really. This being my maiden voyage in sardine eating, i was expecting it to not be so normal tasting!! I feel like there was a lot of "disgust hype" or whatever around these that make them sound scarier than it is. The spines aren't even bad either!! They kinda just dissolve like a salt flake, maybe a little gritty but not for long. I ate a few and dumped the rest, plus the water into soysauce instant ramen i was eating (though, i ended up putting in the fridge because it was getting late).
Next day- Took the noodles and sardines and reheated them and wrapped them in rice paper with seaweed and spinach. It was still good, though.
Type: King Oscar, Mackerel in olive oil (4.05oz/115g)
Number: 2.5 big fillets - and some shredded bits
Review: I'm eating is as a late night snack because going to the kitchen would be kinda unreasonable at this hour. Right away after opening the can, it smells similar to canned tuna (considering mackeral is related to tuna, it's to be expected.). The fish are skinless and boneless, although i kinda like the skin so... anyway, some of the fillets are a bit torn up, making it a bit difficult to get a good count of the individual fillets. First fillet in and it really does taste similar to canned tuna, just kind of different texture-wise. The whole fillets have a different mouth feel to them compared to tuna, while the loose torn up bits are more delicate feeling than tuna. The oil also makes a difference, it's hard to describe, but the thickness feels much different to water. I really yshould have eaten these things with some rice, but... who wants to hand clean a rice cooker at this hour? I won't be forgetting about rice next time ofr sure... i've developed a bit of a headache and only two bites left. Ough.
Type: King Oscar, Wild Caught Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil Mediterranean Style
Number: 14 fish
Review: It's a little weird that the can has plastic wrapping on it, isn't the can enough packaging? I feel like they could have printed the information on the can, but whatever. Anyway... i prepared some jasmine rice in advanced this time. Right away after opening, there's five slices of black olives and some spices atop the bed of sardines, it smells fishy. First fish in and it just kinda tastes like a sardine, but milder because of the oil. It's a lot less fishy tasting with mild spice taste to it. I'm not sure though, isn't it kind of defeating the point of eating fish, right? Eating these after the makeral, i realize that how much i actually like the skin on. For some reason, whenever i felt a spine, it felt grittier than the chicken of the sea ones. I'm not sure if it was the brand or the oil in this case. I noticed that the olive slices actually made dents in some of the fish. Most of the top layer fish have fully intact skins on them, but some of the bottom ones got peeled a bit. With rice, it's good. The rice flavor somehow overpowers it? But still good, even better with kewpie mayo, though. I ran out of furikake, so it's still sub optimal flavor.