Japanese cooking is now somewhat popular and we are starting to see Japanese kitchen products as well as ingredients in various stores outside of Japan. However, if you have tried making a Japanese dish at home by carefully following the directions of a recipe you found online or in a cookbook exactly as written, you may still find that the same food on the table of a Japanese restaurant somehow delivers a totally different sensory experience. This is because with making authentic Japanese dishes, you really need to become deeply conscious of the subtle details surrounding the steps of the specific recipe along with the standard routines of Japanese cooking in general or else you will end up with something very different on your plate. One important thing to remember is the ingredients and tools you decide to use will make or break your success in producing a dish with that distinct Japanese flavor and aroma you are after. But don't get discouraged because below we'll show you two things you'll find to be significant gamechangers in your kitchen.
If you like Japanese cooking, then whether you know it or not, you’re likely also a fan of the unique taste that none other than real wasabi can add to a dish. Wasabi not only compliments sushi but also is often used in salad dressings, sandwiches, soba noodles, soups, stews and in more recent times even hummus! You may have seen wasabi paste in a tube at the grocery store or online but actually it may not even be wasabi at all even though the word, “wasabi” is written on the packaging! Take a close look at the label because the ingredients inside will likely be things like cornstarch, Chinese mustard, green food coloring and horseradish. So if the fine print on the actual label doesn’t say “wasabi” or “wasabi japonica” then you can safely conclude... IT’S NOT EVEN WASABI! We really do not have an explanation for why or how products that don't even contain what they say could be sold but even if it does contain real wasabi, if you have the chance to compare the tubed verses the freshly grated version, you’ll be unable to deny that nothing beats the aromatic and pure flavor that you’re going to gain by simply grating it yourself. And for this you’ll need a good wasabi grater.
Now I see you reaching for that cheese grater but unfortunately western-style graters will not produce as fine of gratings as a wasabi grater, which you're going to need to get anything close to real Japanese flavor in your cooking. Luckily, we happen to have excellent ones at our store and in the case of the product we are introducing in the link below, it can also be used to grate ginger as well as garlic too. After grating your own fresh wasabi and experiencing the best quality of flavor it is capable of, you will have a hard time returning to the generic taste of the regular store-bought wasabi paste. So if you are into Japanese food, please try grating your own fresh wasabi and treat yourself to the authentic version of its distinct flavor and aroma with this grater.
