Ken wrote on Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:48:23 -0700:

>> Ken wrote on Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:40:39 -0700:
>>
> >>> Hello All!
> >>>
> >>> I just enjoyed a lunch of take-out sashimi and thought I'd
> >>> look it up on Wikipedia. A phrase caught my attention: "a dipping
> >>> sauce (soy sauce with wasabi paste and thinly-sliced
> >>> ginger root or gari, and ponzu)" That doesn't fit with my
> >>> tastes, ponzu might work for some things as might tamari,
> >>> which is not mentioned, but not for all and putting gari
> >>> in the dipping sauce does not seen to show much
> >>> understanding.
>>
> >> I'm with your taste entirely this time. Moreover, as I
> >> understand it, that definition of the dipping sauce for
> >> sashimi is completely wrong. Such a sauce may perhaps be
> >> used occasionally, but it's not the standard.
>>
>> The quite good sushi place where I bought my lunch supplies a
>> small cup of soy sauce and quite a lot of wasabi and gari but
>> not mixed. I don't find myself using very much wasabi but
>> I'll admit that I tend to finish off the gari *after* the
>> meal!

> I'm accustomed to getting a small *empty* container for soy
> sauce along with a small pitcher of soy sauce to pour in as
> much as you want. The plate of sashimi or sushi usually has a
> bunch of fake wasabi paste, so you can add as much of it as
> you want to the soy sauce. I use a fair amount in the soy
> sauce with sashimi, but little to nothing if it's a good
> itamae who has already added the optimum amount to each piece
> of nigiri.

> I eat the gari between different types of fish to cleanse the
> palate and get it ready for the next type.

All very true since it does depend on taste. Nigiri differs from sashimi
in that for nigiri, the chef will have used some wasabi whereas for
sashimi it's up to you. I wish people would stop calling the green
horseradish paste "fake". It's almost always the only thing you can get,
a perfectly decent accompaniment and also what the itamae uses for
nigiri. There's only one place in the Bethesda/Rockvlle area where real
wasabi is supposed to be available at an exorbitant price and it loses
its taste very quickly.

I don't mix the (let's call it) green horseradish with soy sauce, I will
dip the sashimi in soy sauce, place it on the rice and pick it up again
with as much "wasabi" as I judge necessary, which depends on the fish. I
like more on salmon than on tuna. I sometimes also like to eat the fish
*with* some of the usually excessive amount of daikon, and if it is
tuna, shiro if the real thing is supplied.
--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not