Friday, January 22, 2010

wasabi adventure

Over the holidays, we made our Xmas eve trip to Mitsuwa to pick up our Xmas Cake, and while browsing around the section of special fancy stuff for gifts, we found a display of real wasabi. Not the fake stuff you get in restaurants (which is mustard, horseradish and green color) but the actual root. I was excited to see it, and then flabbergasted by the price:

fresh wasabi

Yup, that's $59.99 per pound. Luckily, a little root doesn't weigh much! So we brought the tiniest one home.

fresh wasabi

I didn't have the proper grater (I used my trusty basic microplane) and we weren't even going to have sushi in the house while it lasted. But I wanted to see for myself what it was like.

fresh wasabi

And it really is nothing like the faux wasabi I've had all my life. It's hard to explain, but unlike the horseradish version, the heat dissipates really fast. And it doesn't go to your sinuses at all. At least in comparison. I do not love wasabi paste, but I really liked this! I couldn't just keep eating little pinches of it though, so I made a bowl of wasabi mayo out of it and we had it on sandwiches for a few days. Delicious, and definitely a worthwhile experiment!

6 comments:

  1. Wow - I've never seen that. Do you use the whole thing? Sounds fantastic! Makes me wonder if they ever have it at our market..

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  2. Love the color - just the slightest hint of green! I cannot get over the price, though - wow. I'm guessing a little bit goes a long way?

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  3. I had heard the wasabi you generally find in the states isn't true wasabi. The real thing sounds pretty interesting! Unfortunately we don't have any Japanese markets around here but maybe someday I'll get to try it. It does seem like .06 of a pound is still a fairly good piece! (and I'm a little ashamed that my math is so bad I can't figure out how many ounces that is, haha)

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  4. Lisa - you peel it, and then grate the root. I think you can eat the greens although they were cut off (and I didn't try!)
    K, I don't know how far it would go, actually. It made a nice bowl of flavored mayo but if you were using it on sushi? I think it would get really expensive fast!
    Donna - I have no idea either! And I was too lazy to go check on a calculator. It was definitely so different, it's worth trying sometime!

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  5. Interesting, hmm. Can these be grown in North America? With prices like that, it'd make some nice supplemental income for a windowsill garden

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  6. I love finding treasures like that! Steep price, but sometimes it's worth it to find out! I am very curious now since I am not a fan of the paste either...
    Great find!

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