Please add me! I've never had a chance to try the real deal.

I'm a big fan of Japanese food and sushi, in general. One time I had a piece try to go down the wrong tube. I ended up coughing and sneezing a bit of the fake stuff out of my nose. It was not a fun night.

Have you guys tried Japanese mustard (karashi)? S&B brand or others. For me, it's much more pungent and painful. Just a little can take my breath away. Used with oden, tonkatsu and other similar type things. Wasabi may be a walk in the park when compared to the mustard.

Yes, with tonkatsu. But just a wee, little bit.

There is a restaurant in my area that has the REAL wasabi in the back. They don't have it on the menu (if I recall correctly), but you can ask for some. I was out with a friend recently and asked for some. The friend did like it.

FANTASTIC!!! What a cool idea for a karma! Please do include me.

Mine story is boring, but only that I discovered they made Wasabi flavored candy and sold it in Japan. I have thusly become a huge fan of wasabi Kit-Kats!

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
... wasabi Kit-Kats!

Sounds awful and now I have to try one.

Oh, yea...love this stuff!

Please enter me in this incredibly generous karma! I've never had real wasabi.

I have a (fake) wasabi story that brings a smile to my face every single time I think of it.

When I was in my 20s, I worked in a kitchen with an older gentleman in his mid 80s. He was generally hilarious but also very peculiar. He'd been around the world in the military, but other than that he was small southern town to the core. He was born there, served, and then moved straight back and pretty much never again went outside those city limits. If they didn't serve a dish at one of the two small diners in town, he'd never eaten it and he didn't have any desire to change that.

I've always been a pretty adventurous eater, so he always had a fun time looking and picking at what I was eating for lunch. I'd bring in Chinese or Thai food, and he'd say "oh, you've got those old fish heads again. I always tried to get him to try what I brought in, but he never would.

Everyone else we worked with knew I was pretty adventurous food wise too, so one day someone brought me a bag of wasabi peas. I don't know where they got them, but they were pretty good, with a strong wasabi burn.

He saw me eating them, and for whatever reason that day he decided he wanted to expand his horizons and try them. He was a big guy, and he poured himself a big handful of the peas. I didn't think he'd ever had wasabi before so I warned him that they were pretty strong and he really needed to only try a couple at a time, but he didn't listen and shrugged, grunted, and threw the whole handful in his mouth.

That proved to be a spectacularly bad idea. He managed to chew about 3 times before the entire mouthful of wasabi hit his sinuses. His eyes got huge, and I could already see the tears forming before he got turned around to run for the nearest trash can to spit them out. I had worked with him for about 10 years, and that was by far the fastest I'd ever seen him move. I'd have bet a whole paycheck that that was the fastest he'd moved in 40 years.

By the time he finished clearing his mouth and got turned back around so I could see him again, the burn had started to fade but he still had the same wide-eyed, teary expression on his face. To this day, that expression is one of the clearest memories I have.

After he recovered, he gave me a what in the world just happened to me look. I laughed and reminded him that I told him it was a bad idea before he did it, but he ignored it. He never said a word about it, and he also never said a word about anything I was eating again, probably out of fear that I would offer him something else to try.

My wasabi story is as follows:
Years ago my wife and I were at our favorite sushi place in Orlando. We were just about finished and were going to have some green tea ice cream.
At that time they were just starting the evening drum performance, I turned away from the sushi bar to watch for a moment.
When I turned around, my wife and the sushi chef (also our neighbor) were smiling. Didn't think anything of it. Took a spoonful of the ice cream - it was all wasabi.
When I had turned around, he put a big hunk of it on the ice cream. The color was a perfect match. Pretty sure my eyes rolled around 3-4 times.
Swallowed it down. Then had some hot sake to finish it off.

I didn't know the "charm" of wasabi until a trip to Charleston SC about 15 years ago. I was on a work trip, visiting a customer. Coincidentally, a great friend of mine was in town at the same time, so I met him for dinner.

I don't remember the dish I got, but there was a lump of "green stuff" beside the main item. I was busy chatting and scooped up a fair bit of "the green stuff" with one particular forkful.

The next moment was like a slow-motion scene in a crummy movie: I heard my friend say "NNNnnnooooo!! Youuu donn't waannt thaaaat muuuuch of thaaaat!"

I put the fork down and asked him what it was. He explained that it was wasabi and it would have set me afire if I'd taken in the amount I had picked up.

Since then, I've learned to like wasabit -- albeit in much smaller doses.

Put me in please. MY first experience with wasabi was at a local Japanese restaurant with a new date. I don't remember what I ordered but it came with a bowl of wasabi. It looked like guacamole to me, so I put a big scoop on my food. The first bite took my breath away, but I didn't let that on to my lady friend. Would love to try it again.

Not in, but here's my wasabi story:

There was an Asian Buffet I would frequent. When selecting the sushi, I would put a dollop of wasabi on each individual piece. One day the waitress walks by my table and says, "That's wasabi.' I say, 'I know'. She goes on to say, 'It's hot!' I reply, 'I know.' She says, 'You craaaaazy." Wife and I cracked up.

Not long after, a sign appears over the wasabi, "Not guacamole, HOT". The buffet was popular with Hispanics, and I guess a few learned the hard way.

Another tough call. I'm going with Mars_Attacks for his next lunch at the sushi go-around. Plus he's something of a culinary expert. At your earliest opportunity please send me your mailing address.

The rest of you thank you so much for your hilarious stories. Seems like many of you have your own wasabi stories.

SWEET!!!!

Congrats, Mars Attacks! kkina, can you tell me where I can buy the real wasabi online?

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Congrats!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by TigerDore:
Congrats, Mars Attacks! kkina, can you tell me where I can buy the real wasabi online?

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=was...129&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Thank you, V-Tail!


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Yes, Amazon has several brands.