tuuuuuuuuna

i LOVE tuna. not the live fishes, though they may be quite nice, i wouldn't know, not having actually met one ever. but what i really like is the edible, pre-scaled and de-headed and all that, tuna. i love it in sushi (mmmmm, raw, red tuna). i love it as a steak. i love it crumbled onto a salad. i love it stir-fried with a little soy sauce, ginger, sesame seeds, and onion. i love it straight out of the can, or mixed with a little miracle whip, mustard, dill, and apple. (yup, take my word for it: tuna made with mustard, dill, and apple is just about the best thing ever). i even slum it every so often and eat it mixed in with mac-n-cheese.

i eat tuna nearly every day, and sometimes more than once. i can't get enough. mostly, because i'm a poor student, it's the canned variety, though given the choice it would be sushi quality. i was given a consumer reports article once on canned tuna. broke it down, in the usual overly anal CR way, into 4 categories: white in oil, white in water, light in oil, and light in water. i only do 'in water,' and prefer light to white. i also prefer low-sodium, though that tends to cost more. my favorite 'store' brand is richfood, which also happens to be lower in sodium than most other non-low-sodium varieties. anyway, this article claimed that progresso light in oil was the very best tuna of all of them, regardless of category. so i bought a can (at an extravagant $2.19). it was well and truly the best canned tuna i've ever had. DEEEEE-lishous.

in the same article there was a sidebar about mercury levels in tuna. to sum up: tuna often has mercury in it. mercury is bad for you. [digression: here's a horror story of a particularly sad case of mercury poisoning. read the AP news release and the final medical report. this is NOT the kind of mercury that is in tuna, in case you were worried.] anyway, this article says that children, the elderly, people with immune problems, and women of child-bearing age should consider limitin their tuna intake, because of the mercury. i forget how much mercury is in tuna, on average, and how many ounces of tuna one should limit themselves to per week, but it turned out to be something like 2 cans of tuna per week. HA! two cans per WEEK? what, are they KIDDING?