• Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      real wasabi root is a bitch to farm, so if you buy wasabi paste and it’s not expensive, or if someone serves you more than a tiny dollop of it, it’s probably actually horseradish paste with wasabi root extract.

      not that it matters, clearly people enjoy the horseradish paste.

      • thrawn@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Real wasabi paste sounds like a poor value, wasabi doesn’t age too gracefully when grated and you’d presumably pay a markup for the packaging and grating

        For those who live in areas with good Japanese grocery stores, I highly recommend looking for some rhizomes and grating it at home. Super easy, less than $10 for several servings, and lasts a couple weeks. If anyone is interested but doesn’t wanna Google it, feel free to reply or DM me and I can send my grater/process.

        There are a lot of foods that aren’t quite as good out of their home country, but American grown wasabi is excellent. I’ve had someone tried to gatekeep me but like, I coincidentally am very into sushi and am reasonably friendly with a couple ***/Tabelog gold sushi chefs that I visit when in town, some of the best in the world with access to the highest quality ingredients. I’m not eating the wasabi directly but I can’t tell a difference between theirs and the American one from half moon bay. It’s definitely worth trying if it’s available in your area, you aren’t missing anything by doing it yourself and it takes minutes.

        • Drusas@kbin.run
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          5 months ago

          Fresh wasabi is available at one of the stores near me very occasionally and it’s always been $99.99/lb.

          I buy it every time it’s available. You only buy a little, so it usually works out to something like eight or ten bucks for a good few servings. Not really expensive at all.

          • thrawn@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Yeah that’s exactly the price of mine too! A lot of people talk about how expensive it is, but it’s definitely cheaper than high quality fish which can cost as much or per pound, and you need a lot more than just a small rhizome.

            • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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              5 months ago

              You’re not gonna survive off of wasabi. Fish without seasoning isn’t going to taste very good but it’s food.

              • thrawn@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                Well yeah, but you can get cheap fish for less than the wasabi. I meant more like, if you’re gonna spend some money on higher quality ingredients, may as well spend $8 for wasabi.

                Most of the seasoning for sushi can be had for cheap and would still taste good, thankfully. Wasabi is more an undertone anyway