Trader Joe's Sesame Crusted Hardwood Smoked Ahi Tuna

I never had lox until I was an adult. I'm not sure if I would have appreciated it as a kid, to be honest. I mean, I've always liked most fish, salmon and tuna included. But the way it's served cold, often with cream cheese on a bagel was weird to me until I started eating bagels regularly.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that we tried this product served in exactly the same way you might serve lox. That wasn't my smoothest segue into the review part of the blog post, but hey, it was actually Monday morning when I was composing this, so cut me some slack. This whole blog post will likely be clunky, but I promise it'll have good info like always. It might even be vaguely entertaining. Now what was I saying?

Back to the tuna. It's ahi tuna. There's a spiel about what "ahi tuna" means in Hawaii on the packaging, so I assumed the fish was sourced in Hawaii. But then I checked traderjoes.com and it says it's caught "off the coasts of Micronesia." Wait. Micronesia is a real country? I thought they made it up for Zoolander. Just kidding. I knew it was real. But why doesn't the packaging say "product of Micronesia" I wonder..? Seems like there might be some nefarious fish poaching going on here but I won't dime you out, Trader Joe.

Anyway, we can confirm that Trader Joe's Sesame Crusted Hardwood Smoked Ahi Tuna works at least as well as lox when placed on a bagel with cream cheese. Sonia added tomatoes, onions, and arugula to hers and she enjoyed it that way. It's very similar to lox in terms of texture, but you know tuna is less fishy than salmon, so it's more neutral. Also, the sesame seeds add a nice nutty flavor. There's a smokiness to the product, but it's nice and subtle.

I also threw together a makeshift poke bowl with this smoked tuna, some greens, rice, and yangnyeom sauce. I don't know if that's a legit poke bowl but it was pretty tasty. Sonia liked it, too. I should have added avocado. That would have made it even better.

Complaints? We wish there were more fish in the package. We wish each slab were just a tad bigger. We wish the bag were resealable. Still a winner in our books.

$6.99 for the 4 oz non-resealable plastic bag, found in the refrigerated section. Kosher. Would buy again. Nine out of ten stars from Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Sesame Crusted Hardwood Smoked Wild Caught Ahi Tuna.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.