Keith Neal
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2011
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This stuff is too good to be true. Another addiction.
I will have to try some from there. I like anything starting with wasabi,horseradish,mustard,hot peppers: including bhut jolokia (ghost peppers). It's a sickness but I am not looking for the cure :biggrin:
Since you're in Costa Mesa, try the Marukai or Mitsuwa markets that are close by. They often carry fresh wasabi up here in the LA area. I would assume they have them down in the OC.
Pacific Coast in British Columbia is also shipping rhizomes, but they don't mention if it's Mazuma or Daruma. Cool. I'm salivating (and my nose has started running! ) at the thought of this...
Thanks I will try that. That was a great tip. I go to Marukai and a few Asian markets for my bulgogi fixings, Kimchi, spicy noodles, jajangmyun,etc. I am Caucasian but grew up eating lots of Japanese,Chinese,Korean,Vietnamese food.You have it good up there with Olympic Blvd and Monterey Park.
Some folks were interested in how long the rhizomes last. The answer appears to be that is doesn't matter. The stuff is being consumed so fast at my house that it couldn't go bad first.
The microplane is not the right tool, but it is what I have now. Does anyone know where a good sharkskin grater can be had?
I believe Korin has them. For the time being, use one of the cheap aluminum or ceramic ginger graters. My relatives in Japan use this. They live in Shizuoka prefecture, the main growing area for wasabi in Japan.
Wasabi rhizomes are sold everywhere in the area they live. You can even get it at train stations. That's where I got some the last time I was there and brought some back.
http://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/other-items/graters/shark-skin-grater-with-brush.html...The microplane is not the right tool, but it is what I have now. Does anyone know where a good sharkskin grater can be had?
Thanks Keith!
Gonna try to get this stuff locally in the near future (outside Portland)...
Any early taste reviews or comparison to the powdered stuff many have been using?
Some folks were interested in how long the rhizomes last. The answer appears to be that is doesn't matter. The stuff is being consumed so fast at my house that it couldn't go bad first.
The microplane is not the right tool, but it is what I have now. Does anyone know where a good sharkskin grater can be had?
i have had customers accuse me of giving them fake wasabi, because real wasabi is neon green and they would never eat here again. real wasabi tends to be ... grey green, but not in a bad way. grate it and seal it for about ten minutes and let the flavors develop, same with the cabbage core. It is less pungent then the powdered stuff. Your job as the chef is to educate. There will always be someone who wants the hot fake stuff because that's all they know.
I educated them. I brought them a piece of the real wasabi to their table and showed it to them. I treated it like a prized treasure and had it wrapped in a silk cloth and let them know that it was very rare and valuable, that it was flown in special and that I had a very limited quantity and was only sharing it with a few valued customers. people want to be treated special and that little bit of personal service goes along way. You would be surprised how much it calms some people down. People want to be sold things, be a salesman. stores would go broke if you only sold people what they wanted. That restaurant isn't being cheapo, they are creating a demand and recouping their cost at the same time. It makes business sense. If it is rare people want it and they will pay. Even you, the very fact that it intrigues you enough to want to put it on your menu means that the mystique and marketing is working. Is' it worth a hundred bucks a pound? Hell know! Will someone pay that much or more for it? Hell yes! Some just to try it and some because they can and no other reason and the rare few who truly enjoy it.
Accurate cost, really depends on how much you give them and how much you want to make,. You are going to lose at least 60% of what you bought in just waste( skin, fibers, leaves and such) and that is conservative. That's why they charged $5 extra and that probably is just to break even. Most of those places aren't making a profit off the wasabi and they don't buy enough for everyone to get some. It is for the most part a loss leader. It brings in people because it is a perk the other guy doesn't have. Figure out what you paid for it and figure you are getting a 40% yield on it closer to 35% and then multiply that actual cost times 3 or 4 and than divide it by the portions you get out of it and that is what you will charge for it. complicated huh. So if you get a 100gram piece for a $100 dollars and it yields 40grams it still cost $100 and you want 3 times food cost you would multiply times 3. That means that that 40 grams is now $300 dollars and say you got 60 portions out of it. $300/60=$5 that is what you would charge.
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