I didn't say it was sad. I said I was sorry to hear it. Two different things.
"you get the stuff so fresh that you don't like the idea that it comes frozen"
There's your winner.
For eating raw, the way tuna should be consumed, freezing at home temperatures has a "mushing" effect caused when ice crystals penetrate cell walls. The faster you can freeze it, the better. Most home freezers rarely get below -15 or so, and they don't move air quickly enough to truly rapidly freeze delicate meats.
Ideally you'd drop the block of wrapped tuna into liquid nitrogen and then move it to a deep freeze to warm up and stabilize. Flash freezing at that kind of temperature will prevent almost all cellular damage.
Unfortunately, though, even commercially frozen tuna is often quite sub par because of repeated partial thawing and refreezing during shipping.
"I can't afford to airlift fresh-caught sashimi-grade tuna to my home, and the really good sushi bars aren't popping up around here like they were when I lived on the East and West coasts."
You could have easily lived on one of the coasts, yet you choose about as north central as you can get. I think the optimal phrases are 1. "You have chosen poorly" and 2. "Sucks to be you, Homer."
"I can't get Yuengling here, either."
Who the hell would want to?
I grew up a hop, skip and a jump from the brewery. It was cheap, about as cheap as beer could get, and I still wouldn't touch it.
Tell you what...
You ever get back east and we'll go on a sushi bar crawl. I know a couple of GREAT sushi places.
