Çava? Black pepper mackerel, a wonderful can of surprise

Truly, what’s contained in this small can is a grocery list topper. Everything you would expect from a can of fish, chewy, dry, bland, watery turned out to be the completely opposite. The texture of the mackerel was tender with close to no bones and the taste itself was clean and the pepper was subtle. It’s making me salivate recalling the taste.

The sauce that the mackerel was sitting is was the best part, dunking the large chunks of fish into black pepper with no mercy. As my enjoyment grew, my peripheral vision spotted a lemon, immediately two halves were cut, a light drizzle into the sauce. It was amazing, it brought everything fun about the taste together and pushed it right into a instant hat tip. Lemon and black pepper, a fearless couple.

Çava? is a brand from Japan. They have all sorts of canned goods and packaged treats. This is their website Iwate Canned Co. The mackerel is domestically caught and packaged in factories in Kamaishi CIty, Iwate Prefecture, North East part of Japan.

I think packaging helps with the impression of a product. It’s never just a can, or just a label, these details matter. The pull tab itself was extremely easy to flip and peel open. It’s as if I were peeling off a sticker from its backing. That ease to open a product registered as part of the experience.

It would be hard to believe someone who has never used a knife or some ridiculous object to pull back a simple tab on a can to get to the food. There’s been times where i’ve felt as if a crane and vice were needed to pull open the seal only to be left with peaking at the edge of the food with a busted tab in hand.

Being one for contrast, crisp apple slices help cut through the salt and gave a nice crunchiness to rapidly ping pong back and forth all of the textures and flavours.

The design of the label is simple and effective. Maybe some would be confused whether it’s a can of tuna, but from what I know they don’t have tuna products under the Çava? brand. If you do come across the brand, the various colours indicate the flavour, sauce, brine, oil.

All in all, if the can is asking me how I’m doing I would say, delighted and surprised. Surprised that.a $5 usd can of mackerel with black pepper could have such subtle nuances. I’m curious about where their house recipes take me.

Çava? black pepper mackerel recipes
(Google translate the page, it translates the Japanese quite well)