Not a surprise since escolar cooked, the only way I've been familiar with it, has a texture like pound cake. Dense but a fork just slides through it anywhere--you don't have that sensation of distinct thick layers like you do with all other members of the tuna family that I know. Used to be able to buy fresh escolar at a Bristol Farms in Southern California sometimes, but only sometimes because they told me it didn't sell well due to it causing gastric distress in some people. I never had any problem with it, just pure love, but nonetheless that factoid is probably the reason it never occurred to me to eat it raw.
And the other was a great pastrami sandwich at Ben's Deli. The pastrami was some of the best I've had. Less fatty than some without being too lean, mildly salted and mildly smokey with good pepper spice. The rye bread was disappointing though. I'm sure that the bread part wouldn't matter to many, that it's all about the meat, but for me that's not true. This rye was fairly industrial--seeded but no corn meal--and not crusty. Totally lacked the character of the denser, very crusty and coarse corn-meal studded rye of the Jerry's deli chain in Southern California that I always drag home a loaf of. Ben's bread didn't even tempt me. Good deli is nonexistent so far as I know in the Pacific Northwest. A chain that's more a NY style sandwich shop than a real kosher deli per se recently moved to town that they claim is original to New York, but the meats have the heavy flavor of preservatives and artificial flavorings, and though not bad it's no substitute for the real thing to someone who cares about that difference. Which I do.
Must throw in a shout-out for a deli lunch the same day that you make a long flight home. A pastrami and six pickles to go will drive your fellow passengers wild with desire at dinner time while they settle for a $7 cheese and cracker packet.
