No, you broken chopstick, you dab a little on your sushi if you want extra. Moreover, most of the wasabi in the West is just green horseradish. Real wasabi is a root that comes from a river and tastes nothing like what we commonly find outside of Japan.
The tradition of adding it to sushi remains even if the wasabi we’re given isn’t wasabi.
When I was in Japan, you could indicate when ordering whether you wanted wasabi and the chef would place a dab between the rice and the fish. My understanding is that real wasabi loses flavour very fast after being grated. Placing it so it doesn’t contact air helps to preserve flavour.
I would not say real wasabi tastes nothing like the horseradish fake. You can tell the plant is still part of the horseradish/mustard family. It’s definitely a more “clean” flavour though. It’s pretty easy to tell when you get the real thing. The fake stuff looks like a quite intensely green uniform mushy paste. The real stuff looks a bit like grated ginger, but with a pale green colour, often with some variation in colouration.
Thanks for the explanation, now that makes sense. I feel like dabbing a small piece of wasabi on the sushi makes an uneven taste when you first chuck it in your mouth, that’s why I’ve always mixed it with the soy sauce so it’s spread evenly. Having it integrated into the sushi when it’s made makes sense.
Er, what if it’s not actually soy sauce? Like, imitation or reduced sodium soy sauce? I can’t handle this.
How bad is it if I enjoy mixing soy sauce and fake wasabi and shower it over my pieces?
