Wasabi

Wasabi is traditionally used in sushi, but today we can even find other wasabi products such as wasabi flavored chips in the market. Yes, wasabi has grown on people. You must already know the taste of wasabi – it stimulates a unique, burning sensation in the nasal passage rather than the tongue. If you have never tried wasabi before, do not worry, the taste lingers only for a while unlike the traditional spicy food like chili. The taste is more like spicy mustard. With that said, people consume only a small amount of wasabi because of its strong sensation. You may have eaten it, but do you actually know what wasabi is made of? And why do you think sushi eaters prefer wasabi with their sushi?

What is a Wasabi Plant?

Japan is the home of wasabi. Real wasabi is really hard to extract and therefore it is quite expensive. At present, wasabi is made from horseradish. However, the real wasabi comes from a plant called wasabia japonica. Due to the scarcity of the wasabi plant, most restaurants use horseradish as a substitute. Moreover, this plant takes a lot of time to grow. Thus, horseradish is used extensively as a cheaper alternative. Real wasabi plant will have to have be eaten within 15 minutes of preparation because it loses its taste after 15 minutes. On the other hand, if you want a cheaper alternative, then you can just purchase a jar of wasabi powder. You will get the same hot punch with this powder after you mix it with water and make it into a paste.

The true potential of wasabi was discovered in Japan. The wasabi plant was discovered hundreds of years ago in the mountain regions. From then onwards, it has become the most popular Japanese condiment. The Japanese people used wasabi with raw fish to eliminate the odor of the fresh fish and to add a distinctive taste. Moreover, wasabi has antibacterial properties; it was used in the old days to get rid of bacteria from the fish that would cause health problems for consumers. Used this way, the Japanese could store fish for a longer period of time without having to use refrigerators.

The Use of Wasabi in Japanese Food

Wasabi in used in a lot of Japanese dishes today, and some of them are:

• Sashimi: the Japanese would never take their sashimi without wasabi. The use of wasabi with sashimi started in the 14^th Now, it is a common practice to enjoy sashimi with a dip of soy sauce and a pinch of wasabi
• Soba noodles: another dish which uses wasabi to complement its taste is cold soba noodles. This dish is a favorite among the Japanese during hot summer days to cool down
• Sushi: you already know about this. Sushi is an excellent and unique dish of the Japanese culture. Sushi is not complete without a hint of wasabi. However, the addition of wasabi to sushi became popular in the 19^th A sushi dish is incomplete without the extra zing of wasabi! Sometimes you can find a dab hidden between the fish and rice in a nigiri

 

A member of the cabbage family (Cruciferous), Wasabia japonica is a root vegetable that is shredded into a green paste and used as a condiment in Japanese cuisine. Wasabi is a native herb of Japan, and it is mostly cultivated in the cool highland regions of the Amagi area in the Izu Peninsula, Hotaka, Nagano Prefecture, and Shizuoka Prefecture near cold running streams. The plant develops naturally beside Japan’s stream beds in mountain river valleys and has become an important part of the Japanese diet.  There are many cultivars in the market yet Duruma and Mazuma are the most prominent.

Wild wasabi appears to have been used as a medical herb.  It was ingested as a remedy to food poisoning, which could have been helpful when serving with uncooked fish.  The word ‘wasabi’ emerged in the oldest vocabularies of Japan, including the oldest botanical dictionary Honzo-wamyo from the Heian period, and the root was also mentioned in Wamyou-ruijyushyo; the oldest Chinese-Japanese dictionary.

In stores, wasabi is commonly available as a powder or in a paste form.Wasabi has a hot and powerful taste that dissipates after a few seconds and doesn’t leave a burning sensation in your mouth. Identified as Japanese horseradish, its rhizome is grated very finely and mixed into foods as well as used as a condiment.  Its flavor and peppery taste is closer to that of spicy mustard than of a hot chili pepper, creating fumes that burn the sinus cavity rather than the tongue. The fresh leaves of wasabi can be eaten as well as the rhizome; they can be consumed as a salad after undergoing one night’s pickling in vinegar and salt, or by rapidly boiling them with a small amount of soy sauce. The leaves can also be pounded and deep-fried into flakes or chips.  The dried, powdered form of rhizome that is found in most shops has to be combined with water to form a paste before it can be used.

Wasabi is usually served with sashimi, sushi and noodle dishes in Japan.The ground root-like rhizome flavors many foods in Japanese cooking and its green color adds a visual appeal for which Japanese cuisines are well known.  For the last twenty years, alternatives made of combinations of mustard, horseradish and food coloring have replaced the freshly prepared Wasabi, especially in Western markets, due to short supply of fresh Wasabi rhizomes.

Typically, in Japanese cooking, Wasabi is prepared by shredding the fresh rhizome against a coarse plane.  Traditionally, Sushi Chefs will use a shark skin grater, as the material provides a fine, coarse edge with which to grate the Wasabi root.  Many Chefs are in different minds about whether to peel or scrub the wasabi before grating it; each chef will have a unique preparation method that is no doubt of great importance to his or her cooking.

Fresh Wasabi is sweet and has a mild flavor that compliments soy sauce and fresh fish.  Wasabi is a greatly cherished plant in Japanese cooking, and lately it has established widespread demand in western cooking because of its exceptional flavor. Used as a component in dips, dressings, marinades and sauces, wasabi is an adaptable spice and is swiftly becoming one of the well-loved flavors in Western cuisine. A popular use of the root in America is wasabi peas: the peas are fried or roasted, then covered with a combination of wasabi and other seasonings in which they are baked into a stiff coating. These are then eaten as an incredibly spicy and fulfilling snack!

Wasabi cultivation is supposed to have started at Mt. Wasabi-yama, the headstream of the Utougi-zawa River at Utougi, Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture.  Folklore states that in 1600 A.D., a village dweller discovered a wild wasabi plant by chance and brought it back to his village, planting it at a cold, clear river.  In 1992, as the cultivation initially began to increase dramatically due to world demand, a commemorative stone monument with the writing “The Origin of Wasabi Cultivation”, was constructed adjacent to the place where he used to sell his wasabi.

Wasabi requires special care during cultivation. The plant matures to approximately 18 inches high, generating leaves on long stems from the peak of the plant. As the plant matures the leaves fall and at the point where the stems are connected a rhizome forms.  The rhizome usually reaches harvestable size after 2 years. Because of the difficulty of cultivation and the time involved to grow a plant to maturity, the majority of the “wasabi” served nowadays is really only European horseradish dyed green, or a combination of horseradish with mustard powder and chlorophyll.

Demand for real wasabi is very high. Japan has to import large amounts of it from the Ali Mountain of Taiwan, Mainland China, New Zealand, Oregon and other small farms in the United States. Wasabi agriculture can be a major contaminant to rivers as it generally requires fertilizer like chicken manure and continuously flowing water with no regulation on what is being dumped back into the rivers and streams. The difficulty that comes of wasabi cultivation is unfortunate, since it is definitely a necessity when eating sushi, working together with soy sauce and pickled ginger (gari) to perfect the flavors.

The wasabi chemicals that provide its exceptional taste are the isothiocyanates, together with 8-methylthiooctyl isothiocyanate, 7-methylthioheptyl isothiocyanate and 6-methylthiohexyl isothiocyanate. Studies have revealed that isothiocyanates have valuable effects such as reducing bacterial growth. This can partly explain why wasabi is habitually served with seafood, which spoils rapidly.

*SPECIAL NOTE* If the quality of your seafood is doubtful, with or without wasabi, you must not eat it uncooked. It is not a remedy for food toxicity!

Sinigrin is a component of black mustard seeds and the wasabi rhizome.  This provides the main distinctive flavor in wasabi, oddly only after grating.  An unprocessed rhizome does not have a strong flavor, since sinigrin must react with air before releasing the spicy taste so well loved in Japanese cuisine. 

Real wasabi is one of the rarest vegetables on earth.  Only a small number of geographical regions are suitable for developing wasabi, and most of these are not solely used to produce wasabi.  Genuine wasabi is frequently known as hon-wasabi or ‘true’ wasabi, to distinguish it from other imitations that frequent the market and restaurant tables.  Wasabi powders found in the market are made from different amounts of European Horseradish, Mustard powder, food coloring and preservatives.  This kind of imitation wasabi is known as seiyo’o wasabi, which is usually a lot different in flavor from the freshly grated horseradish in Japan.  True connoisseurs can tell the difference, but sadly many of us have never tasted the true ingredient.

Almost every sushi bar in America serves imitation wasabi, and in fact the majority in Japan do as well.  The ingredient is so rare and expensive that most restaurants cannot even consider using the real thing and turn to cheap alternatives that many people cannot actually tell is different.  Regardless of whether you use the real wasabi or an imitation, it should be used as soon as it is made into a paste.  The longer wasabi paste sits out in contact with air, the quicker the flavor will disappear.  A common sushi bar trick is to mix the wasabi powder with water in a tea cup or sake cup and then turn it upside down, thus protecting the wasabi from the air and ensuring it stays fresh for the duration of service.

Imitation Wasabi Powders are playing a significant role in sushi bars today.  There are wasabi powders on the market that contain real wasabi as one of the ingredients; however since real wasabi is not very common most people will buy the horseradish version in stores. Always buy wasabi in a powder form instead of paste, to ensure that no additives have been mixed in.  When you buy it in paste form there have been extra chemicals and preservatives added in to keep it moist and fresh.  Not all ingredients are listed on all packages, so unfortunately you cannot trust the information on the packet.  It’s best to choose the powder form and to know what you are getting!  You should also check that that the green dye is a natural ingredient – Sushi Now! Brand wasabi powder has a great flavor and is made with all natural coloring that any sushi chef would be happy to serve.  Try out our wasabi and see for yourself