Monday, March 19, 2007

   So ashamed.
Yes, I have been busy, but to not have posted in this long is shameful.

For those of you remembering my last post, I had purchased some grated wasabi. I did a side by side comparison between that & the cheaper "wasabi" provided by the japanese restaurant where I purchased the california rolls for comparison. I chose california roll because it is kind of a neutral sushi that won't overpower the wasabi, but still has some flavor.

I did 2 comparisons - the first mixing equal amounts of wasabi with soy sauce and dipping the sushi briefly. The second comparison was putting a small amount of the wasabi on the tip of my tongue - no blending.

Blending:
The real grated wasabi was prepared in an oil based solution. This led to difficulty in getting a smooth dissolve in the water based soy sauce. The horseradish based wasabi blended quickly and smoothly in the soy sauce.

Blended flavor:
The standard wasabi had an overpowering flavor. I think I would have to use much less of the wasabi in order to get a blend that complemented the sushi rather than replacing the flavor of the sushi.
The recommended blended amount of prepared grated wasabi (the real stuff), offered a much better level of flavor that did complement the sushi rather than overpower it.

Straight:
Both cleared my sinuses. Wasabi is japanese horseradish, so they both had that lovely decongestant effect. From a strictly "heat" perspective, I think they were pretty close. The horseradish based wasabi had a much stronger flavor, while the grated wasabi was... cleaner. Yeah - my culinary vocabulary seems to need a little improvement. Overall, I don't think there was enough of a difference to hunt down the real grated wasabi. The more important aspect to me is to find the right ratio of wasabi to soy sauce and then the proper dipping technique so that you can add the flavor without drowning out the sushi. I sound like such a sushi snob - just wait until I talk about sake - snooze city. Life goes on.

The next thing I would like to do is to make my own flavor of sushi. I am into hot peppers, so I purchased a few mild peppers (Anaheim and poblano), sushi vinegar and sweet rice. I am going to make some pepper sushi. Of course, I have been a bit lax with the cooking lately, so I am not sure when exactly I am going to make this, but I hope it is before the peppers go bad. By the way - a friend of mine taped an episode of a show called "Good Eats" for me that talks about peppers. Great show. It talks about the science of cooking as well as recipes and techniques. That reminds me - I need to set up a subscription on Tivo to catch more episodes.

As some of you may know from reading Yensid's site - we are in the process of buying a house a couple of states away - California (the state where I grew up). The process is incredibly stressful & I am sooooo sick of signing my name. First, there are the offers, counter offers, loan applications, disclaimers, loan paperwork, insurance, request for repairs & I have heard the closing paperwork is the worst of the bunch. I'm not sure I even want to see that.

The whole house shopping thing is the excuse I am using for not updating more often. I do enjoy visiting you all & hope to continue to do so even if I am not posting. I'll give you an update once I am in California to let you know if I find any good anime sources outside of San Francisco (I'll be in the Sacramento area), although I think a subscription to Netflix may be in order.

Until next time.

-bunraku
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