Fresh Wasabi
Eating fresh wasabi, straight from the root, is really the only way to eat wasabi. I visited a wasabi farm in Nagano prefecture, north of Tokyo and bought a couple of wasabi roots to take home. Wasabi is a shallow growing root that needs exceptionally fresh mountain stream water to flourish, and it is traditionally eaten after having been grated on a steel or wooden utensil that most homes in Japan have in their kitchen some where. The freshly grated wasabi root is fantastic, it tastes so much better than the tubed stuff you get in the supermarket, like the difference between freshly ground coffee from top quality beans compared to stale instant coffee. Not only the root but also the leaves are edible and you can use it in salads or for some fantastic tempure for example. Life is too short to eat tubed wasabi, from now on I will have the real stuff!
Saw this for the first time in Feb 2012 at the fisk market in Tokyo… was certainly an eye opener!
fish even!
Fisk sounds better! (^-^)
Thank you for the kind comment! (^-^) Lovely blog by the way, very funny! //Ex. China-expat myself…
Reblogged this on Clara's Photo Blog and commented:
first time i see wasabi root. interesting!
I was surprised the first time I saw fresh wasabi. I love it better than fresh too, but I can never finish a whole root. There is a special grater used for wasabi (the one that you have pictured). It’s made from shark skin!
The shark skin grater (also visible in the photo I think) was a bit too expensive for me… (^-^;) Love the fresh stuff though!
I heard it is very hard to grow wasabi, they only like to grow in fresh clean streams of water. and yes, I have to agree, fresh wasabi is the best! it’s not hot as the tubed stuff which sometimes contain a bit of horse raddish and immitation stuff.
Absolutely! There are complicated home kits that you can buy to grow your own but it looks very difficult..!
Fantastic! How fun to see the wasabi root. And indeed, it’s better not to eat anything in a tube although sadly there’s no fresh wasabi available where I am… :’(
Hm… maybe you could try growing some? But Oklahoma would not be the best place… maybe Oregon or Northern California? Or even West Virginia?
Wow! I’ve never seen this before. I always assumed wasabi grew in a green paste.
hahaha… BTW, when can we enjoy MP3s of your performances on your blog? (^-^)
Jesus! 1000 Yennies for one?? In the mountains near where I live an adorable old lady sells them for 100 a pop.
Hmm… maybe we could come to some sort of trading agreement?! I need more of these but they are far to expensive in Tokyo…! (^-^)