Ask Lemmy

"Tuna"

As far as I know Tuna-fish is only a nth American thing and sounds very weird to my ears.

So this vote will likely be Nth America vs the rest.

Honestly, why only tuna fish?

Salmon-fish?

Chicken-bird?

Why is this a pinned post 😅

All you crazy foreigners just don't realize. 'Merica has no regulations, sense, or laws. We call it "Tuna Fish" because just "Tuna" is sawdust and cat liter.

I consider “tuna fish” to be outdated and regional to the South and maybe Midwest US. I grew up hearing it but at some point started wondering why tf we would say that rather than just tuna, so I’ve made a point to just say tuna since then.

For some reason if I think of a tuna fish sandwich I imagine canned tuna, but if I think tuna sandwich I imagine whole seared tuna.

Is there a tuna that is not fish?

You can't tuna fish otherwise you risk it becoming a bass.

Are there Tunas that aren't fish? We just say Tuna here in California unless we ask for yellow fin tuna or blue fin tuna

Neither. I never order a tuna sandwich. I sometimes make myself a tuna sandwich. 😂

Tuna fish = The animal

Tuna = The meat

It's like with cows and beef

I'm in camp "Midwestern American who says tuna fish". . .but I'm also right there with the person that said they don't order them and tuna fish sandwiches are something made at home.

For the record, I don't know why the fish part is specified. It just always was. It's not like my family called it a "can of tuna fish" growing up or anything. It's just the sandwiches. Put that tuna between two slices of bread and suddenly the word "fish" gets thrown in there. Maybe it just sounds more fun if you add more syllables? Either that or somebody in the region had to explain that tuna was a kind of fish years and years ago and it just stuck.

I order a tuna salad sandwich or a tuna sandwich, but I grew up hearing tuna fish... specifically in reference to the stuff that came in a can.

Both were equally common years ago but over time, "tuna" sans fish has won out... likely because fresh, non canned tuna is very common.

I read an article a while ago that theorized the reason for Americans calling it "tuna fish" was that it rose to prominence as a canned staple good in the 1940s, and many Americans who didn't live on the coasts had never heard of tuna before. Its light meat, when canned and cooked, was very mild and chicken-y compared with the heavily salted, oily canned fish folks were familiar with, hence both "chicken of the sea" and the precaution of labeling the can with not only tuna, but "fish".

I think an alternate explanation is probably more likely... the 1919 Oxford English Dictionary describes "Tuna" as an alternative spelling of "tunny", the old name for the fish (still used in a culinary sense in Britain) ... not coincidentally:

• Californians would also have been familiar with the other tuna... tuna fruit, the prickly pear.

• Possessed of both a fruit and a fish of the same name, distinguishing one from the other when canning fish seems reasonable

• The largest canneries of tuna (e.g., the one that ultimately became Chicken of the Sea) were all based in California.

No, I say "tuna salad" and then get disappointed when it's just chunked tuna with no vegetables or dressing.

I call it whenever they call it on the menu. This is generally how everyone should order food. It’s what the servers have memorized and it’s how they understand the requests better.

Tuna. I'm in the midwest. I've lived on the west coast. I just assumed "tuna fish" was an east coast thing.

It's redundant. Tuna fish, wrist watch, eye glasses...

Tuna.

Tuna-mayo.

We call it "fish chunk" sandwich, coz we literally can't tell if it's tina or not, we just eat it. That way we aren't disappointed.

Tooter fish popkin

Id never order a tuna fish sandwich but I'd make them. I'm from pnw USA. When I say tuna sandwich I feel like it would be different than something out of a can. Tuna salad probably makes more sense but ive never had any confusion when saying tuna fish. Doing some googling, "tuna" is also Spanish for "prickly pear". So tuna could be used to describe a cactus fruit. In Cali there is a restaurant called "La tuna canyon". Not cause of the fish.

"Tuna Fish"