Most Wasabi Is Fake [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#121

Post by stan_rogers » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 11:41 AM UTC

seszett wrote: post #99

tptacek wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could say the same thing about vanilla, for which Cooks Illustrated was infamously not able to triangle-test a meaningful preference between artificial and real in a baked goods panel (IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla). Sometimes, the artificial ("beer-grade") version is a legit advance. A big problem with truffle oil is that it's too e…

> IIRC, the Milk Bar cookbook went a step further and specified recipes that only worked with artificial vanilla It's a well known fact of cooking, natural vanilla denatures above a rather low temperature (around 50°C or so, if I recall correctly) but artificial vanilla doesn't. So if you're using vanilla in... crème anglaise (apparently that's the English name for it?) you should use artificial vanilla or pay much a…

Well, the English name for it is custard, but that tended to be mixed up with Bird's in people's minds, so a real custard in a sauce consistency gets the French name for prestige value.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#122

Post by mikekchar » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 11:50 AM UTC

gotocake wrote: post #69

tptacek wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

I’d add that if you don’t like ultra-rare beer then it’s kind of a waste. I’m not a fan of anything that isn’t medium, and by that temp a lot of the fine marbling is effectively lost. In short, when I finally had some real A5 I realized it was totally wasted on me. If you liked carpaccio though, it would probably be amazing. I think too often people attach value judgements to grades or things, to wine and the like, w…

I eat wagyu fairly often (I live in Japan and like to buy local). Of course it's Shizuoka wagyu since that's where I live, but as others have said the difference between various regions are not that great (I go to Takayama fairly frequently and eat Hida gyu, which is rated as highly as Kobe gyu these days and it's not that much better than Shizuoka yume wagyu).

IMHO eating wagyu as a steak is a waste for essentially the reason you state. The fat softens at that temperature and because there is so much of it, the texture suffers. I'll take a long aged, lower fat, dry cured cut over that any day of the week. Where wagyu really shines is yakiniku. When it is cut thin, the fat has somewhere to go and the flavour and texture are amazing. This is one of the reasons why if you buy wagyu steak at a teppen yaki place, they will typically cut it fairly thinly.

Wagyu is not actually that expensive in Japan. I mean it's expensive, but not the ludicrous prices that people pay overseas. IIRC 100g of Shizuoka bara (stomach -- think the same cut as bacon) is about $6. Sirloin is up around $16. That's still nearly $70 a pound, but if you aren't making a steak or a roast (for which it is really completely inappropriate) it's fine. When I do yakiniku at home with my wife, between the two of us we eat 300 grams of meat and that includes the pork (Shizuoka black pork is amazing).

I really like wagyu, but there are other traditions for preparing beef that are just as good (in a different way) and not as expensive.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I typically make a roast here using thigh meat (momo) and bard it with stomach. That is a fantastic combination and I can make a 1 lb roast for less than $20.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#123

Post by OJFord » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 11:59 AM UTC

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".

I've heard this online a few times, but it doesn't gel with my experience shopping at all; I suppose it must be a regional thing.

In the UK the closest I've seen or heard of are both 'real' (whole) carrots:

Chantenay - https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-chantenay-ca...

'Baby topped' - https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-1-baby-toppe...

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#124

Post by falsedan » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 11:59 AM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #111

jahewson wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes indeed. Though most of his so-called $5k houses actually ended up costing around $20k.

And having leaking roofs.

that's how you know it's a Frank Lloyd Wright house

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#125

Post by buu700 » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 12:01 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #5

In high-end Japanese restaurants, you can often get real wasabi (it'll be listed at the bottom of the menu). My experience with it has been that it's usually coarser, more watery, and less pungent than the "standard" wasabi. I do not prefer it; whatever combination of horseradish and mustard restaurants default to is, I think, the better product. If I was eating wasabi on its own and trying to, I don't know, apprecia…

Sounds like what you were given was just a coarsely ground and non-fully-dehydrated version of the root?

At home I use off-the-shelf wasabi powder, and after mixing with a small amount of water the resulting paste's texture is consistent with that of faux-wasabi.

Edit: I'd bought my wasabi powder under the pretense that it genuine wasabi imported from Japan, but now I see several Amazon reviews alleging that it's fake, and I have no way to tell one way or the other. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#126

Post by userbinator » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 12:14 PM UTC

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…

The chemical responsible for the pungency is well-known and synthesisable, so it wouldn't surprise me if the manufacturers just added more of it on the basis that it's cheaper and customers may think "stronger" wasabi to be better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allyl_isothiocyanate

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#127

Post by seszett » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 12:15 PM UTC

notyourday wrote: post #120

seszett wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There absolutely is such a thing as truffle oil made with real truffles, and you link also says so.

This is today as described in wikipedia Truffle oil can be produced using any oil. Common versions use olive oil, or a more neutral flavorless oil such as canola or grapeseed oil.[6] Some truffle oils are made with truffle residues incurred during collection or preparation for sale. Many truffle oils sold in retail markets are not made from truffles[1] but instead use manufactured aromatic compounds including 2,4-dit…

Well, this does say that "some truffle oils are made with truffle residues". Now maybe this is rare in the US, but at least in France it's the only kind of oil that is allowed to be called truffle oil (well, "huile à la truffe"). It could be called "olive oil with truffle taste" otherwise ("huile d'olive/tournesol/colza au goût truffe").

It's really not difficult to find here, and it is absolutely made with real truffle (the broken pieces that can't be sold as truffles). I don't have any at home because I don't care for it, but one I can find at my usual supermarket for example contains "TUBER AESTIVUM (1.1%)". This is known to be a so-so variety of truffle at best. The next-level product (at almost 40 €/L) specifically says that the truffle in its ingredients is "Périgord truffle (Tuber Melanosporum) 1%". This is probably a good enough truffle oil if you like that.

Looking up the products here in Belgium though, it seems like only "truffle taste" oils are available in the regular supermarkets, but that is also clear from the product names ("Bereiding van Olijfolie van Eerste Persing 99,7% met Truffelsmaak").

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#128

Post by draw_down » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 12:19 PM UTC

mikekchar wrote: post #109

tptacek wrote: post #5

In high-end Japanese restaurants, you can often get real wasabi (it'll be listed at the bottom of the menu). My experience with it has been that it's usually coarser, more watery, and less pungent than the "standard" wasabi. I do not prefer it; whatever combination of horseradish and mustard restaurants default to is, I think, the better product. If I was eating wasabi on its own and trying to, I don't know, apprecia…

Wow. That's amazing to me (and also that so many responders agree). I love wasabi! It has a clean, sweet, chlorophyll taste to it. However, there are a few caveats. Real wasabi needs to be mashed, not grated. If you cut the cell walls it doesn't produce the flavour properly. You need to break the cell walls. That's why you use a shark skin "grater" (and it's important to press hard and "grate" in a circular motion be…

I think it’s okay to prefer the false stuff.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#129

Post by justtopost » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 12:39 PM UTC

VirtualAirwaves wrote: post #76

lainga wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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

Grape/wine vinegar (usually) isn't Kosher either.

Sounds like old abrahamic superstitions are still making food worse.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#130

Post by GuB-42 » Thu, Mar 21, 2019, 1:07 PM UTC

barbs wrote: post #47

I'm ok with the fact that it's not real wasabi but how is this legal? Isn't this blatant false advertising? (Sorry if they address this in the video but tl;dw)

Fake wasabi actually contains a tiny amount of real wasabi. Sometimes as low as 0.1%.