APRIL 12, 2007
Have you ever had real wasabi? Did you know that the green paste called "wasabi" that you get at the sushi restaurants often contains none of the famous Asian horseradish?
We just keep encountering new treasures as we look for local foods, and wasabi is the latest. It looks like a cross between a parsnip and a celery root, so it wasn't attracting too big a crowd at the monthly winter farmers' market. We walked home with a chunk for $3.50 and immediately knew we wanted to share the experience. Luckily our friends Ruben and Olive were due in late from out of town - I knew they'd be happy to have someone else make them dinner.
We ate the white mash (wasabi must be freshly grated or its flavor fades) on slabs of seared Pacific tuna that somehow turned out just right. The flavor goes right up your nose, but not with the sinus-clearing blast of the sushi-shop paste. The real wasabi is hot but also sweet, with layer upon layer of flavor. I felt like a wine writer coming up with this list of what my nose was detecting: roses, wet clay, cobblestones after rain, fleur de sel, green apple, and just a hint of my childhood favorite - gasoline.
It reminded me that when Kalle Lasn, the mind behind
Adbusters, reads a piece of writing he likes - something that hits with a gut-level truth - he often says, "It's got a little wasabi in it." Kalle, by the way, was stirring the pot about "true-cost economics" (such as food prices that reflect the social, environmental, and even military costs of oil for food transportation - costs that are absorbed by all of us rather than by those producers and consumers who make the least ethical choices) ten years ago when I met him. I suspect it is no coincidence that he is also an excellent gardener, and much of the food that hits his plate has traveled no further than a short walk across sun-warmed soil.-JBM
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APRIL 12, 2007
Have you ever had real wasabi? Did you know that the green paste called "wasabi" that you get at the sushi restaurants often contains none of the famous Asian horseradish?
We just keep encountering new treasures as we look for local foods, and wasabi is the latest. It looks like a cross between a parsnip and a celery root, so it wasn't attracting too big a crowd at the monthly winter farmers' market. We walked home with a chunk for $3.50 and immediately knew we wanted to share the experience. Luckily our friends Ruben and Olive were due in late from out of town - I knew they'd be happy to have someone else make them dinner.
We ate the white mash (wasabi must be freshly grated or its flavor fades) on slabs of seared Pacific tuna that somehow turned out just right. The flavor goes right up your nose, but not with the sinus-clearing blast of the sushi-shop paste. The real wasabi is hot but also sweet, with layer upon layer of flavor. I felt like a wine writer coming up with this list of what my nose was detecting: roses, wet clay, cobblestones after rain, fleur de sel, green apple, and just a hint of my childhood favorite - gasoline.
It reminded me that when Kalle Lasn, the mind behind Adbusters, reads a piece of writing he likes - something that hits with a gut-level truth - he often says, "It's got a little wasabi in it." Kalle, by the way, was stirring the pot about "true-cost economics" (such as food prices that reflect the social, environmental, and even military costs of oil for food transportation - costs that are absorbed by all of us rather than by those producers and consumers who make the least ethical choices) ten years ago when I met him. I suspect it is no coincidence that he is also an excellent gardener, and much of the food that hits his plate has traveled no further than a short walk across sun-warmed soil.-JBM
