People shocked after seeing real price of wasabi and question if they've ever had the real thing
Topics: Food and Drink, Money, Reddit, Travel
Annie Walton
Featured Image Credit: Reddit/Berk_canc_
Topics: Food and Drink, Money, Reddit, Travel
Wasabi is the ultimate sushi condiment.
The spicy, bright green paste adds a delicious element to your fish and rice that just can't be replicated.
Or so we thought.
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An image of the real price of fresh wasabi has taken Reddit by storm, leaving commenters to question what it is they've been eating.
The image shows two small stalks of fresh wasabi, priced at a whopping $27.75.
One commenter wrote: "This makes me think, I have probably never had real wasabi."
Another added: "Btw, real wasabi isn’t as strong as the fake one. It’s more flavorful, the kick comes as part of the fragrance, if I remember the experience I had 5yrs ago correctly."
While a third explained: "I’ve had this exact wasabi, which is grown in a greenhouse in Half Moon Bay for Japanese markets across the Bay Area. It’s surprisingly milder than the horseradish, and if you leave it grated on your plate for a couple of minutes the spicy flavor fades into a sweet one REALLY fast. Worth it to try at least once IMO, great on raw fish or even cooked salmon fillets."
So if that's what wasabi is, what on earth have we been eating?
Well, it turns out, the majority of what we're sold as 'wasabi' is a mixture of horseradish, mustard and food coloring.
Even fresh wasabi from Japan tends to be diluted with some horseradish to ensure the expensive ingredient goes further.
Real wasabi is much more delicate and herbaceous than the stuff we're used to eating.
The reason horseradish is so commonly substituted is that it's much cheaper and easier to produce.
One Redditor explained: "It's very hard to grow. It naturally grows in river beds in the shade of other plants. To replicate that you need to have a green house with river rocks, misters, temperature controls, and a shade cloth giving an exact shade percentage. It's not cheap.
"I worked in a research facility where we tested pesticides for Wasabi so we had to grow a crop. We lost a large dollar value of product before we succeeded."
Real wasabi also loses its flavor around 15 minutes after being grated, so needs to be served super fresh - which isn't ideal for most takeout sushi.
And one Redditor explained that this mislabelling phenomenon isn't exclusive to Big Wasabi.
They revealed: "I mean yeah, wasabi is expensive... It's also why 90% of the wasabi you're going to eat in your life isn't even real wasabi. Same thing with Saffron and I think Vanilla too."
Everything is a lie.