Sushi Bake Quarantine Eats: Taste & Tell x Aburi Mama x Eleven Baker Street
Numerous food trends and crazes have dominated and populated our quarantine feeds in the past months, from Dalgona Coffee (and its multiple iterations) to Ube Cheese Pandesal and Burnt Basque Cheesecakes. However, I’ve found myself succumbing to only one of those trends: the Sushi Bake saga. At first, I didn’t really get the idea behind it, as I saw it as a deconstructed sushi roll that you had to roll yourself which honestly sounded counter-productive. However, over time and a multitude of rave reviews after, my curiosity got the best of me.
TASTE & TELL
KANI ABURI – 8x8 (P1200)
Taste & Tell was the first sushi bake I’ve ever tried. Back then, Taste & Tell only had the Kani Aburi as its sole variant and it came at a cheaper P1000 price tag. The first thing I noticed about their aburi was that it smelled absolutely amazing the moment I lifted the lid of its container. Taste and Tell’s Kani Aburi is armed with a killer sauce that easily trumps the other brands' I’ve tried so far. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed making my own aburi rolls with the seaweed packs that it came with (despite scoffing at this previously). An 8x8 tray comes with four packs of seaweed, which was enough for the entire tray.
My sole issue with Taste & Tell’s Kani Aburi was that its kani-to-rice to ratio was simply way off. There was simply too much rice that it did get a bit bland eventually despite coming with a killer sauce. Fortunately, we paired our aburi with homemade tempura as the dinner would have tasted too one dimensional with just the sushi bake. Right now though, Taste & Tell has promising variants that may be more substantial in terms of toppings. Its menu has now expanded to include Scallop x Salmon, Unagi and their latest, the Suteki, which boasts of dry aged tenderloin beef and shiitake mushrooms! All of which I’m pretty excited to try soon!
Taste and Tell
Date of Delivery: May 24, 2020 ordered via Instagram
ABURI MAMA PH
The next concept we tried was from Aburi Mama PH. We opted for their Cheesy Salmon Kani Aburi which actually fetched a cheaper price than Taste & Tell’s Kani Aburi despite loading it up with salmon bits; so it definitely wins in terms of value for money. Ratio of kani-to-rice is perfect; and the salmon and kani come in sizable chunks that you can actually bite through. However, Taste & Tell’s distinctly flavorful signature sauce is something that’s pretty hard to beat.
CHEESY SALMON KANI ABURI – 8x8 (P980)
The seaweed it uses comes at an ideal size for wrapping; but I do recommend you adding at least two more packs to your order, as the two packs that come with the 8x8 order is definitely not enough! In terms of offerings, it also features a scallop variant on its menu but Aburi Mama's Ikura Unagi Explosion instantly captured my eye; primarily because of my profound love for Ikura.
Aburi Mama PH
Date of Delivery: May 30, 2020 ordered via Instagram
ELEVEN BAKER STREET
UNI ABURI SUSHI BAKE – 8x8 (P1400)
I particularly enjoyed the Uni Aburi Sushi Bake of Eleven Baker Street. It seamlessly sneaks in the temperamental uni in its sushi bake with ease. Uni’s always a tricky ingredient to handle especially as you have to particular with sourcing as some often end up with a strong fishy flavor. Eleven Baker Street manages to highlight uni’s distinct flavor despite it being paired with ingredients that could have easily overwhelmed it. This means though that unlike Uni Risotto or Uni Carbonara, it’s a bit hard to convince non-uni eaters to enjoy this aburi bake as it doesn’t mute out the flavor of the uni.
Due to its unfair advantage of being topped with uni, Eleven Baker Street’s Uni Aburi Sushi Bake has been my favorite sushi bake so far. It also features the Classic Kani and Truffle Scallop variants on its menu; but oddly, it also launched a Shrimp Laksa Aburi flavor that I’m pretty cautious in trying. Personally, I think I'll be sticking to its Uni Aburi!
Eleven Baker Street
Date of Delivery: June 27, 2020 via Instagram
