Imitation Crab Meat?

This is not really a good substitute. I've had it a few times over the years and found it palateable. While I don't think I would ever serve it to company, I have had it in salads and mixed in with pasta. It is, however, reasonably priced, and was wondering if anyone here uses it. I'm thinking along the lines of a change of pace, weeknight dish.

[Robin Garr]

This is not really a good substitute. I've had it a few times over the years and found it palateable. While I don't think I would ever serve it to company, I have had it in salads and mixed in with pasta. It is, however, reasonably priced, and was wondering if anyone here uses it. I'm thinking along the lines of a change of pace, weeknight dish.

Surimi, usually made from pollock and other abundant, cheap white fish.

Here's my attitude, Howie: I don't hate it in sushi or in a light summer "seafood" salad. In fact, I kind of like it as a mild, sweet "fish product."

But I DO hate it when restaurants present it as "crab" without a disclaimer, and when I encounter it in a restaurant I'm reviewing, I generally rip 'em a new one.

(Oh, to answer your question, I've only bought it once or twice, when I wanted to make sushi or a Japanese dish in which it's the right thing. But we're lucky to have a couple of really good sources of quality fish in this inland town, so there's rarely a situation in which I would normally choose it over the real thing.)

Sure, a little pollock mixed with egg white is no problem. Don't call it "crab" and it's fine.

[Robin Garr]

Sure, a little pollock mixed with egg white is no problem. Don't call it "crab" and it's fine.

About what I said, but I was more wordy.

I'm with Robin and Jeff. I use it (and imitation lobster, too) in certain dishes. I'm not above tossing it with some pasta or using it in stir fries. I've even put some in crepes. It is what it is.

Sure, a little pollock mixed with egg white is no problem. Don't call it "crab" and it's fine.

About what I said, but I was more wordy.

Well, I'm a man on the go; you're just a janitor.

The last time I caught a restaurant passing this off as Maryland blue crab cakes was the last time I went to that restaurant...

But I DO hate it when restaurants present it as "crab" without a disclaimer, and when I encounter it in a restaurant I'm reviewing, I generally rip 'em a new one.

Just watched Kitchen Nightmares last evening and old Gordon experienced just that - he dissected some seafood crepes to find, among other things, some dyed pollack therein. His response was much more moderate than mine would have been.

I've even seen lobster sandwiches on a menu that turned out to be fake lobster. Should have been labelled 'lubester'.

The stuff is perfectly fine for salads (you can top it with fake caviar, which is also quite decent)

I don't mind it occasionally in sushi (as long as it is playing a very minor role) but that's it. I stick with the real stuff the rest of the time.

Don't remember buying it for home dining, but have no problem with it and like it better than real crab in the Japanese cuke salads called sunomono.

Just watched Kitchen Nightmares last evening and old Gordon experienced just that - he dissected some seafood crepes to find, among other things, some dyed pollack therein.

I saw that episode as well. My favorite part was when the two waitresses were outside trying to calm down Biker Bill and one of the gals fires up a smoke, clears her throat and spits out a big loogey. That’s all class.

I saw that episode as well. My favorite part was when the two waitresses were outside trying to calm down Biker Bill and one of the gals fires up a smoke, clears her throat and spits out a big loogey. That’s all class.

Yeah, nothing, and no one, from cook (I won't grace her by calling her a chef), owners, wait staff, nor biker buddies were class acts unless the class was ....low. Not sure why Ramsay bothered with that one unless they figured it made good TV (I'm not sure it did).

Never!

And just when I thought they had hit rock bottom who should show up but Dee Snyder of all people.

(you can top it with fake caviar, which is also quite decent)

Lumpfish? Paddlefish? Which fake caviar did you mean?

(you can top it with fake caviar, which is also quite decent)

Lumpfish? Paddlefish? Which fake caviar did you mean?

No, those would be real fish eggs at least, though not sturgeon.

I mean the product made from seaweed - it isn't bad! One is Caviart (recently mentioned in another thread). http://www.caviart.us/

Faskinat'n. I'll have to try it sometime.

Never!

Well, if I lived where you live, I doubt if I'd bother with it either.

As to imitation shrimps, lobster and crab meat..... Because none of these is kosher, about twenty years ago an Israeli company started making the imitations from North Sea Pollack. I reviewed these products and my closing lines were: "To those oif my readers who keep kosher and cannot thus make the comparion, believe me please, real shrimps, lobster and crab meat have a better texture, smell better and taste better".

The company sued me. They lost.

Caviar, because it comes from the non-kosher sturgeon, is also considered non-kosher so not to be outdone, a few years after that another Israeli company came up with "the caviar of Alexei". My review of that product follows:

An Insult to Sturgeon

Referring to the occasional use of caviar in recipes that I sometimes present on these pages,
several other readers have asked my opinion of the locally produced “Caviar of Alexei”.
Simply stated, my opinion is not high! By definition, caviar is made from the roe of sturgeon.
Even though fine caviar is outrageously expensive, many who have tasted it would agree with Lord Alfred Douglas' dictate that "it is one of the things that makes life bearable, and is thus worth every penny I have to borrow to pay for it".

Alas, sturgeon eggs are not kosher. Thanks to modern technology, however, The Caviar of Alexei, with its Russian-sounding name, seems at first glance to offer hope to those to whom kashrut is important. An advertising brochure I once received from Deli-Tech Ltd., the manufacturers of this imitation caviar claimed that their product "looks like the genuine black Russian Caspian Sturgeon caviar". The brochure even said that theirs is "as tasty as the best produced in Russia". All of which, in my opinion, is little more than an exercise in dubious public relations and bad taste.

Real caviar consists of plump, firm eggs that are shiny, almost translucent, gray-black and large grained. It is neither fishy nor briny in taste and the eggs tend to cling lightly to one another. The so-called Alexei’s Caviar, which contains not a single fish egg, consists of fish, fish skin, and fish bones, vegetable oil, fish oil, salt, stabilizers, taste enhancers and a preservative, none of which are part of real caviar. Precisely how these ingredients are manipulated in the laboratory to physically resemble caviar eludes me, but the visual resemblance is remarkable. As to taste, texture and consistency, however, there is little resemblance to the real thing. Too salty and not nearly tasty enough, these little black beads that roll around on your tongue offer very little in the way of charm. Personally, I avoid this stuff much as I do powdered eggs, powdered soups and that odd creature known as butter-flavored margarine. Those who want to maintain kashrut will find that salmon eggs and lumpfish eggs are far better substitutes for sturgeon roe than anything that was created, like Alexei’s Caviar, in a laboratory. As to substitutes in general, it might help to keep in mind the wisdom of Jews, Moslems, Christians and Buddhists that, in one form or another states quite accurately “....that if something is like an egg, it will never be as good as an egg”.

This company also sued me. They also lost.

Best
Rogov

Real caviar consists of plump, firm eggs that are shiny, almost translucent, gray-black and large grained. It is neither fishy nor briny in taste and the eggs tend to cling lightly to one another.

Best
Rogov

The important distinction concerning the real deal and the rest of them.

Also thanks, Daniel, for reiterating that the word caviar refers to sturgeon roe--period. I believe it is of Turkish origin.

Anyway, not being Jewish, I'm at a loss to understand why the roe isn't kosher. Can you 'splain?

I just can't crawl past that "imi...", "imi..." - I can't even say it.

Just wait folks. Imi..."food" is right around the corner.

[Robin Garr]

Anyway, not being Jewish, I'm at a loss to understand why the roe isn't kosher. Can you 'splain?

I'm not Jewish either, and ought to be smart enough to simply wait and let Rogov give an informed answer.

But what the hell. As I understand it, sturgeon - like catfish, which is also non-kosher - appear to the unaided eye to be scale-less, thus falling under a rule from Leviticus requiring fish have "fins and scales" to pass muster. This, I believe, is where seafood also falls out of consideration.

If the fish isn't kosher, it seems to follow fairly obviously that its roe isn't kosher either.

How'd I do, Rogov?

Anyway, not being Jewish, I'm at a loss to understand why the roe isn't kosher. Can you 'splain?

I'm not Jewish either, and ought to be smart enough to simply wait and let Rogov give an informed answer.

But what the hell. As I understand it, sturgeon - like catfish, which is also non-kosher - appear to the unaided eye to be scale-less, thus falling under a rule from Leviticus requiring fish have "fins and scales" to pass muster. This, I believe, is where seafood also falls out of consideration.

If the fish isn't kosher, it seems to follow fairly obviously that its roe isn't kosher either.

How'd I do, Rogov?

My word! Wonder what a Catholic woman and a Jewish man living together in the old days would have eaten on Friday?

Wait a minute--living together?

The last time I caught a restaurant passing this off as Maryland blue crab cakes was the last time I went to that restaurant...

That stuff's not even close to Maryland blue crab. They should be hanged!