surimi salad

It's marketed as imitation crab meat but that is irrelevant. It is its own thing; Alaskan pollock. I love this stuff more than I love lobster or crab meat. And I know that because all those things were in the case along with other great seafood, but it is this Alaskan pollock that I wanted.

When our family lived in Japan all the little soups that we had off base would have a little white disc with a pink rim floating on top for decoration. "What is this stuff?"

"It's a food product of processed fish."

"That's wild. I like it."

Japanese were decades ahead. They started this trend. And a delightful side benefit is that it's remarkably inexpensive.

If you look on YouTube for [surimi  salad] you'll see that you can do anything that you like. What follows is a photo essay on the things that I like that I had on hand. You can add olives, noodles, avocado, tomato, sweet peppers, fennel, hard-boiled egg, herbs; cilantro or basil or dill, green onion, artichoke hearts, apple would be good, jicama would be nice, corn, spinach, peanuts, pecans, almonds, sesame seeds, grapes, raisins, you name it. Just include the things that you like. But not peas! God, what are you insane? Kidding. Make your own sauce to replace mayonnaise, or adjust mayonnaise. I like to think in terms of color and texture and flavors. Know what? Ham or chicken would be cool too.

Salted with onion to draw out the moisture, and the onion to remove the sulfur sting, then rinsed a few times and pressed really hard against the side of the bowl and squeezed really hard in my hands. 

This is one carrot. Each sliver was cut twice. They overwhelmed the whole thing.