On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:23:16 -0500, "James Silverton"
> wrote:

> 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,


Although it is usually the only thing you can get, it *is* fake. I've
never had real wasabi myself, but I'd like to try it some time.


> a perfectly decent accompaniment


I don't object to it, but I haven't had the real thing to compare with
it. And how decent an accompaniment is has nothing to do with whether
it's real or fake.


> 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 wouldn't want to pay the exorbitant price, but I would try it at
least once, if I ever got the opportunity,


> 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'm not trying to tell you what to do--it's up to you--but as I
understand it, that's a very untraditional way to do it.


> 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.


With sashimi, I also like a lot of daikon with the fish, because the
daikon picks up a lot of the soy sauce-wasabi combination, which I
like.

--
Ken Blake
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