[StarKist] Lunch To Go - Chunk Light Tuna In Water

Hmm. Tuna and vending machines do not seem to go very well together in my head. Especially since this particular package has been in that vending machine for over a semester now.

To be honest, I was actually afraid to eat this. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of good tuna. But I was almost completely sure that this wasn't going to be good tuna.

The packaging was actually very interesting. At first, I thought this was something similar to the Hormel dishes. I thought I would have to microwave the bag inside the package. But when I opened the outer wrapper, I was pleasantly surprised.

There was a bag of tuna and underneath it, there were two separate bags of different condiments, as well as crackers, a spoon, candy and even a napkin. Definitely not something I had expected.

That was when my roommate started telling me how much he hated tuna. Believing that this could actually be a good tuna dish, I began trying to persuade him that not all tuna tasted bad. But when I opened the bag of tuna, I immediately stopped arguing.

The explosion of the repulsive and fishy smell made me cringe. It was a familiar smell. It was the smell of a Vietnamese fish market, mixed with the smell of cat-food. Maybe it was indeed cat-food; the appearance wasn't too far off. In fact, it was very close, if not almost the same.

I tried to stay optimistic. Food can smell bad, that doesn't mean that they have to taste bad as well. I mean I had plenty of those experiences in Vietnam. So, I mixed in the condiments, then with what was left of my hope, I took a spoonful and ate it with a cracker.

Oh why... Just why...

It didn't taste like tuna. But it didn't taste like anything else I could recognize. It was a mixture of the dry, fishy and blend taste from the tuna and the sweetness of the relish and saltiness of the mayo. The cracker also had a very funny taste. I couldn't tell if it was salty or sweet.


With utter confusion and disgust, I looked over to my roommate. And there he was, with his shirt over his nose, laughing at my suffering.

As always, I finished the packet. Maybe it is just me being stubborn, or maybe I was just really hungry. When I was done, I ate the candy as well. Although I told myself that no one can possibly mess up a candy, I was still kind of reluctant. But thankfully, the candy tasted like a regular mint flavored candy. That candy was probably the best tasting thing in that entire package.

This was not as bad as the chicken. But only by a very small difference. The taste itself wasn't too disgusting, it was just the smell and the confusing mixture of flavors that I did not understand. In the end, if you do not have a sensitive nose, and are looking for a very light and quick lunch, go ahead, eat this. But I can't guarantee that you won't be sick afterwards since as I am writing this, I can feel my stomach growling, signally me that something is wrong.