Basic... but tasty! (Sainsbury's Basics 10 Frozen Fish Fingers)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Sainsbury's Basics 10 Frozen Fish Fingers
Date:	26/09/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tasty enough when seasoned, extremely cheap compared to the top branded fish fingers

Disadvantages: The breadcrumb coating is a little strongly flavoured

My granddaughters' all love the Tesco Value Fish Fingers so whilst in Sainsbury's yesterday I thought I'd buy a box of the Basics ones for them to try.

These fish fingers are made of Alaskan Pollock, a white fish which is much cheaper than cod yet retains a good texture and flavour once cooked.

They actually look nicer to me than the Tesco version as the breadcrumbs are a more golden colour, cooking is done in less than 20 minutes in the oven and then I was ready to serve them up - having also popped three in for myself to enjoy on a sandwich.

While these are undoubtedly not as tasty as the Value Fish Fingers, they do have a fresh fish flavour once cooked and mashed up nicely on my sandwich. It's the breadcrumbs that spoiled these for me as in my opinion they are too strongly flavoured and the overwhelmed the more delicate flavour of the fish.

I put a little salt and lemon juice on mine before assembling my sandwich and this makes all the difference as it somehow neutralises the strong taste of the breadcrumbs and allows the pollock flavour to come through better. Of course I also added a touch of ketchup to my sandwich as really, a fish finger sandwich is not complete without a drop of sauce!

My granddaughters' all enjoyed them and only the oldest noticed that they were different to the Tesco ones I usually buy, and confirming my opinions she stated that the breadcrumbs had a strange burned flavour that she said she wasn't terribly happy with.

I paid 48p for this box of ten fish fingers, which is exceptional value considering the fact that a box of twelve made by Birds Eye cost me almost £2 recently. The fish fingers are a little smaller than those sold by Birds Eye but this is negligible and honestly I doubt I'd have noticed this difference in size had I not put a single Birds Eye fish finger on the baking tray with these much cheaper ones.

Summary: Not as good as the Tesco Value Fish Fingers, but very nice all the same.