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Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

theatlantic.com

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Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#31

Post by Ozzie_osman »

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".

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#32

Post by dragonwriter »

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".

> Baby carrots are not, in fact, small carrots

The ones I've gotten that still have the tops on them, and the outer skin, absolutely are; IME, what you are referring to are generally sold as “baby-cut” or “petit” carrots, rather than “baby" carrots.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#34

Post by tptacek »

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.

You're definitely not expected to eat the ginger along with the nigiri (sometimes menus will point this out) but, I mean, if you like the way it tastes, go for it. :)

The only thing I think we have to agree on is that people who mix wasabi in with their soy sauce are evil.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#35

Post by Semiapies »

jhwhite wrote: post #33

I thought everyone knew this. Alton Brown talked about it on Good Eats years ago.

Same here. I've been reading about this since the early 90s, at least

Also, if it's a mildly expensive steak in your local Japanese restaurant, it's neither Kobe nor Wagyu, as people have been pointing out since the 80s.

Maybe we should have a Hacker Olds for stuff like this and the random Wikipedia articles.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#36

Post by fataliss »

Never thought I'd get "the feels" watching a video about wasabi. But I really salute the initiative of making such a nicely done video to showcase a dying(?) local artisanal practice. I think young people would find a lot more interest in such professions if it was showcased like that!

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#37

Post by nkozyra »

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?"

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#38

Post by dragonwriter »

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…

> 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 first floor, restaurant was upstairs.

While I won't question your description of the freshness, I would point out that that set up would also work as a hack to suggest freshness regardless of where the ingredients that actually go into your food are sourced.

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#39

Post by naravara »

tptacek wrote: post #25
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.

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…

>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.

True. (And TBH I prefer a decent beer to an equivalent tier of champagne) People get wrapped up in the status element of the luxury good and lose sight of the actual use/enjoyment function of the good itself. If we were more comfortable letting the cheap stuff sing in its own right instead of trying to imitate the expensive things we might open a lot of doors for new innovations.

Your point about truffle oil makes me think of all those 50s cookbooks doing all kinds of weird stuff with gelatin since gelatinizing stuff wasn’t some absurdly laborious and expensive process anymore. It seems like it took a while for people to realize that entombing all foods in gelatin just because you can is actually. . . Not very good. Haha

Re: Most Wasabi Is Fake [video]

#40

Post by theoh »

naravara wrote: post #17
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…

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

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