I love wasabi. I put it on everything I can. I loves to make me a thermonuclear paste out of about a 4:1 wasabi:soysauce mix and dip some of my sashimi in it. The stuff is like green, sticky crack. I don’t eat absurd amounts of it because I’m trying to prove something, I eat it because it is the condiment of the gods.
Suddenly I feel the need to guzzle a half a bottle of soy sauce. I have the taste and nothing can sate it but the oppressively salty flavor of Kikkoman’s.
At my favorite sushi place (Tojo’s in Vancouver BC), Tojo-san will tell you what you should dip in the soy sauce and what you should leave undipped. And there’s always enough wasabi already on the sushi, so you don’t need to add more. If only I could afford to eat there more often…
Wait, so eating sushi with wasabi and soy sauce makes it halfway edible? That’s what I’m doing wrong. I’ll try to remember that the next time I’m feeling masochistic and want to try the stuff.
Interestingly enough, in most sushi places you don’t get real wasabi, which is a rhizome that is freshly grated, but rather a mix of horseradish, chinese mustard, and some other stuff. Real wasabi is somewhat similar to horseradish, but has a more refined and distinctive flavor.
I prefer to mix enough wasabi into my soy so that it’s a light brown color, then just briefly dip the sushi to add a bit of salty kick. If i’m eating takeout sushi and there’s no good mixing vessel, I’ll just put a bit of wasabi on top and eat it that way.
When I was in Vancouver on my honeymoon, I found a sushi place over in Richmond called Fukuroku that was pretty good. And cheap. This isn’t sushi, but I also highly recommend the Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant. Not so cheap, but damn that was some of the finest dim sum I’ve had. Crap, now I’m hungry. Excuse me…
That is a good point. Living in Denver, I have never had real wasabe in my life. I would really love to try the real stuff, but it is apparently a true rarity in the U.S.
Just a personal observation that could be way off, but from what I’ve seen you mix the wasabi and soy to make a dipping sauce for sashimi, but put it directly on the fish (or between the fish and rice) for sushi.
Of course, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, and plenty of folks just do whatever comes naturally.
I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but it’s around 140ish Mass Ave in Boston. The middle-aged waitress. She told me to do it. You want a cite? Ask her.
Tojo Trivia: he invented the California roll. I saw an interview with him once, he’s a very interesting guy. When I go back to Vancouver, I am planning to go to his restaurant as soon as I get off the plane.
I’ve always wondered though, who put a condiment on their food before they’ve tried it plain? How are you going to know what will work with what you’re eating if you add stuff to it first?
mmm… sushi.
Now I have a craving, and I’m not going to have time to go out until Tuesday.
You crack me up, Pochacco. Don’t you think maybe that after ranting about other people’s sushi-eating habits, you lose the right to complain when they rant about yours?
I’ll tell you how I eat my sushi: however the hell I like to eat it. If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to avert your eyes. I am not so un-self-confident that I’ll suborn my food preferences in order to meet with your approval; it’s ghastly that some people are that timid.
You know, I got so sidetracked by my lust for sushi, that I forgot to make this exact point, which was my whole point. Except, maybe not quite as vehemently But yes, you can’t dog people’s preferences (as ghastly as they may be) and then dog people for dogging yours.