Some choice bits
they interviewed the chef who invented california roll. He put the rice on the outside because his customers found seaweed too scary.
In reply to
I was reading about this earlier today, sushi in the States is assembled rice-side-out because back in the day, Americans would peel off the nori before eating because seaweed was too scary for them. Absurd.
The lack of spices in Japanese food suggests Japanese are the white people of Asia
Tbf outside of like, actual high end restaurants its probable that wasabi outside of Japan is going to be dyed horseradish, cause actual wasabi is apparently really tricky to grow so its expensive, and also the flavor comes from a chemical reaction that is temporarily activated when grated, so you have to ship and buy actual chunks of wasabi root rather than transporting it in a more compact form.
Edit: actually googled it and apparently wasabi is grown outside of Japan even in the US and Europe, but since people have largely gotten used to horseradish wasabi it mostly goes to satisfying Japanese demand.
yeah, it naturally grows as a partially submerged plant in mountain streams afaik, i could see how that makes farming expensive if you need to replicate such conditions.
I used to use powdered Wasabi that you add water to to make a paste that I believe was the real deal.
Huh, googled it and that seems pretty cool, gonna try and see if its expensive or if I can get a hold of that over here to try out.
I think I found it at an Asian foods market.