During a Chinese New Year potluck function, my cousin brought this very interesting platter of various subspecies of abalone for us to sample! As you can see, they ranged in colour from pale, to reddish to greenish.
From the top clockwise, they are: wild green lip abalone from Australia, New Zealand abalone (not sure what variety though), wild blue lip from Mexico, South Africa wild abalone and wild black lip abalone from Australia.
I have really never sampled different abalone varieties before, and don't particularly appreciate it, but my amateur taste buds preferred the Mexico and New Zealand varieties the most. They tasted the most savoury out of the rest, and were the softest... almost jelly-like in texture. At least, based on the little piece that I sampled. I'm not sure if they came across as softer due to the part of the abalone that I sampled. Between these two, the Mexico one was tastier, but the New Zealand one softer.
The South Africa one was the firmest and had a more mellow taste. The remaining two from Australia were somewhere in between with respect to their texture, and had a lighter taste, if that makes sense.
It's also interesting to note that both the Australian ones seemed to have a relatively similar tone and shade, and also similar taste and texture characteristics... so the origin of the abalone does seem to make a difference.
I have really never sampled different abalone varieties before, and don't particularly appreciate it, but my amateur taste buds preferred the Mexico and New Zealand varieties the most. They tasted the most savoury out of the rest, and were the softest... almost jelly-like in texture. At least, based on the little piece that I sampled. I'm not sure if they came across as softer due to the part of the abalone that I sampled. Between these two, the Mexico one was tastier, but the New Zealand one softer.
The South Africa one was the firmest and had a more mellow taste. The remaining two from Australia were somewhere in between with respect to their texture, and had a lighter taste, if that makes sense.
It's also interesting to note that both the Australian ones seemed to have a relatively similar tone and shade, and also similar taste and texture characteristics... so the origin of the abalone does seem to make a difference.
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