What difference does real wasabi make?
While wasabi shares a similar sort of heat with horseradish, it has a distinctly different taste. The heat it has is slightly mellower than that of horseradish, and it is tempered by a sweet aftertaste. Since I tried real wasabi, the the fake stuff has been mildly disappointing… except on those crunchy peas. It’s still addictively good on those. Why is it so rare? Wasabi is picky. It likes to grow in certain conditions… and they aren’t convenient conditions. In particular, it really likes to grow on the banks of cool mountain streams. I can’t say that I blame it, but I wouldn’t mind more inexpensive wasabi sources in my life. (Apparently, the difference between wasabi grown in running water and field-grown wasabi is tasteable.) Fortunately, there are people who are beginning to cultivate it in places other than Japan that have the requisite biomes, such as New Zealand and the North American Pacific Northwest. Greenhouse methods are also being developed with increasing success. I th
