I got these Bulldog Sardines in Hot Sauce from a local international market. The paper label on the otherwise-unmarked can leads me to assume these are just imported from some unknown cannery and distributed generically through similar market channels. Because nothing says yummy sardines like naming them after a canine, right? Wish me luck.
Initial impression upon opening the can: 4.5/5.
There appear to be five fish total. These are from Thailand, so I'm assuming one of the Western Pacific species of sardine (Sardinella gibbosa?). There are some scales, but no tails or fins. The hot sauce is watery, with a pale, bland color.
The aroma is subtle, maybe a hint of vinegary pepper. A taste of the "hot sauce" is disappointing. The liquid is thin and tastes more like tomato, even though none is listed in the ingredients. The label says soybean oil, but it's way down the list, so I would characterize these as being packed in water with flavoring.
Here We Go
After digging them out and transferring them to the rice bowl, there were about four tablespoons of the "hot sauce" left in the can. I poured about half over everything.
The thing that hit me first about the fish themselves was the dryness. They appear to glisten in the photo, but that's just the watery "hot sauce". And by dry, I mean like sawdust. I added the remaining liquid from the can, but it didn't help.
About halfway through, honestly, I just lost interest and didn't care if I finished them or not.
I bought another can in just soybean oil at the same time. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt, and see if they are any better. After all, these were essentially just packed in flavored water, and sardines packed in water are last on my list.
Main Takeaways
- Visually unappealing
- Hot sauce not so hot
- Desert-in-your-mouth dryness
Oh, well, they were only $1.69, so I'm not out that much. I wasn't expecting to be impressed.
For reasons unknown, I attempted to get a little more info on these. I had seen that older cans referenced a company called Bulldog Seafood, but the web URL for it is a dead link. The Web Archive crawl of the site shows it active from 2010 to 2016. The latest image still had "coming soon" verbiage.
Brand: Prefer Products / Bulldog
Description: Sardines in hot sauce
Species: Sardinella gibbosa?
Country of Origin: Thailand
Source: FAO71, Western Central Pacific
Skin/Bones: Yes/Yes
Net Wt: 3.75 oz.
Price Range: $2