S&B Spicy Cod Roe Spaghetti Sauce mix (Mentaiko)

4:15:00 PM cc 0 Comments

I went to a Japanese restaurant that had japanese styled pasta dishes so I was curious and ordered one. I fell in love with Mentaiko pasta since then! Luckily, I found a pasta mix of it in a Japanese market and found it to be pretty good and cheaper than getting it at the restaurant or from scratch. When I tried making it from scratch, I didn't find a recipe that mimic the restaurant's version or the pasta mix. Plus the fresh mentaiko I got was alittle bitter so it wasn't too appetizing. Must not have prepared it correctly? Mentaiko is the spicy version and Tarako is the non spicy version.

Anyways, I have found that there's a bulk order of this pasta mix on Amazon for a OK price. It is a couple dollars more than you would get if bought the same amount at a japanese market. They're around $3-4 a pack and each pack has 2 servings. For a bulk order of 6 packs so that's 12 meals for $24 with free shipping. To me that's good enough deal. Plus the expiration date does not last long so its better to buy in lower amounts.

Its easy to prepare the pasta meal. Each pack comes with two sauce packets and two shredded nori pakcets. You boil 100g or 3 1/2oz of pasta, drain, then add the sauce. Mix it with the pasta, and then sprinkle the shredded nori (seaweed) on top. I prefer mixing the nori in the pasta since the nori are like tape and will stick all over your fork. Its pretty good and I prefer it to any instant or dry mix meals. But the taste is most likely because of MSG (monosodium glutamate) but I'm ok with that. Another questionable ingredient in this mix is "cochineal extract" which is from a insect that is use to dye foods pink/red. It was on the news for Starbucks' drinks. And well, there's 4 more flavor enhancer ingredients in the sauce: glycine, disodium guanylate, disodium inoinate, and sodium citrate. There's quite a bit of sodium in the sauce (nutrition facts says 590mg og sodium in one serving) so its not advised to eat this sauce mix too often.

Overall, I think the pasta is worth a try!