I made it safely back to Germany, and so did my souvenirs from Japan:



My first test late yesterday was to compare the hon wasabi paste with my wasabi made from powder. They tasted very differently, with my wasabi having a distinct mustard taste. This was confirmed by looking at its ingredients The hon wasabi paste was spicy and felt coarse, but had no distinct taste apart from that.

Next I mixed both the hon wasabi paste and my mustard wasabi with soy sauce and compared. The difference in taste became much smaller. This made me question my practice of mixing wasabi with soy sauce. I did some googling, it seems the consensus is that one shoudn't put wasabi into soy sauce for sushi. I couldn't find such a clear opinion on sashimi though.

So today was the big wasabi day. I went to Sushimoto here in Frankfurt (my favorite place for a sushi or sashimi lunch) and bough a sashimi lunch for takeout. They asked me a bit suspiciously why I was not eating inside this time - how could I tell them I wanted to find out if their wasabi was fake or real? So I just said I had a situation today.


Takeout sashimi from Sushimoto in Frankfurt - with two pieces of toro

Next I made "wasabi" from my powder and grated the wasabi root. The grated root smelled of freshness, was very spicy and tasted a little bit sweet. Together with wasabi supplied with my takeout sashimi, I had three versions of wasabi to compare:


Bottom: grated wasabi root. Top left: mustard-based "wasabi" from powder. Top right: wasabi supplied with the takeout sashimi.

I am still unsure what Sushimoto serves in place of wasabi. It sure isn't grated wasabi root. It isn't hon wasabi paste either, but it also doesn't taste like mustard or prepared horseradish from the supermarket. Taste wise, it's not that far away from grated wasabi, although it has no freshness or sweetness in its taste. It's a little less pungent too (but still not harmless).

Based on new knowledge from yesterday's googling, I tried putting wasabi onto one side of sashimi pieces and dipping the other side into soy sauce, found it a little tricky with chopsticks. When squeezing sashimi pieces with chopsticks from their sides, they tended to fall off. When squeezing from the top an bottom, some wasabi fell into soy sauce.

Next, I made a suicidal experiment and put grated wasabi onto a piece of toro:



Indeed, it turned out not to be pungent at all. I am still at loss how it works - by the time wasabi mixes with fat after having been chewed, the pungent smell is supposed to be already burning through my throat and lungs. But fact is, I barely noticed the wasabi.

Finally, I squeezed out a bit of hon wasabi paste:



It had the same taste as grated root, but much less intense and again lacked the barely noticeable sweetness.

So now I know how real wasabi tastes like and how it differs from fake wasabi. I am still unsure how much it improves the sashimi experience though - today, I was too distracted by dealing with multiple versions of wasabi to actually enjoy the sashimi...