Hands up. Who hates it that some restaurants use “krab” or “imitation crab meat”. Who hates it that people gobble it up, thinking that it tastes “just like real crab”?
Surimi/Krab tastes almost, but not quite, totally unlike crab.
I like surimi, I like crab, but I don’t think they taste very much alike.
If they advertised it as crab, I’d be pissed if they served me surimi, and if they advertised it as surimi, I probably wouldn’t order it. I like surimi in very specific circumstances, and don’t want it substituted for crab in any dish I’ve ever had with real crab, because it would not taste right.
I like both, but I think I can tell the difference.
So did the guy who invented surimi decide it tasted like crab, or was that the work of some marketing goon? I like kamaboko, etc., but I’d never claim it had some relationship to crab.