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Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

theatlantic.com

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Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#41

Post by muzani »

asn0 wrote: post #18

After many years of peak wasabi use (i.e. highest saturation possible) at Japanese restaurants in the US, I had a chance to eat sushi while on a trip to Shanghai. I don't know if Chinese wasabi is more real or not, but quickly learned it had at least 10x more sinus-cleaning power than US wasabi. That was also the first place where I had 'not possible to be any fresher' sushi - orders were placed at the fish tanks on…

I hear the real wasabi is not as strong as the fake one. I've never tasted it, nor the American type, but it's quite possible that it was even more fake. That doesn't mean the sushi is lower quality though; a lot of really good sushi spots use the horseradish wasabi.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#42

Post by lainga »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #3

So is most truffle oil. Canned reindeer meat in the Nordic countries can be up to 40% pork. Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed with water, as opposed to something straightforwardly brewed. If you travel the developing world, you may find that what is sold as chocolate actually has no cacao in it. Lots and lots of disappointments out there in the food world. I find reading labels careful…

>Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed with water, as opposed to something straightforwardly brewed.

Is this because brewed soy sauce isn't Halal?

ED: why the downvotes? That's a legitimate reason for why vinegar in most chip shops is actually "non-brewed condiment".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642x2Y3Zla0

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#43

Post by quickthrower2 »

cortesoft wrote: post #28
peterwwillis wrote: post #10

Most sushi places don't prepare nigiri properly in my experience. Each piece of nigiri should have wasabi between the rice and seafood and a small amount of sauce on top, intended to be eaten fish-side-down. (SF probably has the most places that do it correctly outside NYC and LA) You're welcome to eat it however you like, but the ginger is generally speaking the palate cleanser while wasabi is historically both flav…

I always like the sushi, ginger, and soy sauce/wasabi mixture all in the same bite. Maybe I am weird, but I love that combination of flavors all at once.

I eat sushi without ginger, wasabi or soy sauce. Yuk, yuk and yuk.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#44

Post by [deleted] »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #31
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #3

So is most truffle oil. Canned reindeer meat in the Nordic countries can be up to 40% pork. Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed with water, as opposed to something straightforwardly brewed. If you travel the developing world, you may find that what is sold as chocolate actually has no cacao in it. Lots and lots of disappointments out there in the food world. I find reading labels careful…

Baby carrots are not, in fact, small carrots. They are misshapen carrots that would not sell unless they were carved into "baby carrots".

[deleted]

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#45

Post by naravara »

theoh wrote: post #40
naravara wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All because everyone wants champagne taste on a beer budget. It reminds me of a Frank Lloyd Wright quote when someone asked for a $5k house and he says “Are you sure you want a $5,000 house? Most people want a $10,000 house for $5,000.” They could just pitch these as cheaper substitutions and it wouldn’t be so annoying.

I checked this out. FLW actually said (in the 30s) "a 10k house for 5K", which translates to a 200k house for 100k today. source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4633622

Ah I misremembered the quote. Thanks. Edited and fixed

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#46

Post by tru3_power »

tptacek wrote: post #27
tru3_power wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another one is Kobe beef. Real Kobe beef is from the city of Kobe in Japan and is only served in a handful of resturaunts in the US (I think 1 in NYC and a few in LV). So next time you see Kobe beef on the menu- you know it’s most likely a lie.

You can get A5 wagyu all over the place in the US. The "tell" that you're looking at fake "kobe beef" is when you could take the dish and swap "kobe" for "angus" and the dish would still make sense; so, for instance, a "kobe burger" always going to be silly and shady, and nobody would ever buy "certified angus nigiri".

Yup and honestly the two times I’ve had Kobe I really couldn’t tell the difference between the same cut as non Kobe(yet still A5 Wagyu)- except for when the bill came.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#48

Post by dymk »

nkozyra wrote: post #37
peterwwillis wrote: post #10

Most sushi places don't prepare nigiri properly in my experience. Each piece of nigiri should have wasabi between the rice and seafood and a small amount of sauce on top, intended to be eaten fish-side-down. (SF probably has the most places that do it correctly outside NYC and LA) You're welcome to eat it however you like, but the ginger is generally speaking the palate cleanser while wasabi is historically both flav…

> properly What does this mean, really? This always strikes me as snobbery signaling. Perhaps it's traditional, but does that make it "proper?" Why do only some cuisines have such constraints on what is "proper" or "authentic?"

Why do words mean anything? Why do we categorize anything into any number of buckets of arbitrary granularity?

If I’m served a steak or a slab of raw salmon, am I gatekeeping or being snobby when I claim that I was not served sushi?

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#49

Post by [deleted] »

ken wrote: post #8
Dowwie wrote: post #6

the other day I noticed fresh wasabi root sold in a grocery store for roughly $40-$50

Per pound? That seems cheap. I've seen it at Uwajimaya, late on a Sunday night, for US$99.99/lb. The man stocking it told me, "Get some now, while you can! The restaurants will buy it all up and it'll be gone by morning."

[deleted]

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#50

Post by jghn »

tru3_power wrote: post #24
Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #3

So is most truffle oil. Canned reindeer meat in the Nordic countries can be up to 40% pork. Budget-brand soy sauce might actually be "soy sauce powder" mixed with water, as opposed to something straightforwardly brewed. If you travel the developing world, you may find that what is sold as chocolate actually has no cacao in it. Lots and lots of disappointments out there in the food world. I find reading labels careful…

Another one is Kobe beef. Real Kobe beef is from the city of Kobe in Japan and is only served in a handful of resturaunts in the US (I think 1 in NYC and a few in LV). So next time you see Kobe beef on the menu- you know it’s most likely a lie.

The steakhouse in the Encore casino being built outside of Boston made the news recently for being on that Kobe shortlist
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