Fake Wasabi Paste?

[surayu]

Tonight i went out for dinner at a newly opened "japanese" restaurant, all the staff was thai as usual, i placed my order and when i did try the wasabi it had a very weird taste, i don't know how to describe it exactly but i will try.

Basically, the taste of it was very vague and without any strenght, it was like something "artificial", like a green toothpaste without the minthy flavour and an addition of maybe 1/4 of wasabi, the colour and consistency seemed right, maybe it was just gone off? Has any of you ever encountered this strange kind of wasabi paste?

I just tried a bit of the stuff and so far i am still alive, no pain or strange feelings

[SirDougless]

Chances are that the 'wasabi' you had was 'artificial'. Real wasabi is very expensive, so outside Japan you would usually be served horseradish (a hundredth of the cost) with green colouring. Nevertheless, both are from the same family of root vegie, and both lose their bite (which is mainly nasal) when exposed to air for a time. The flavour 'evaporates'.

[surayu]

Thanks for the reply.

I have been eating wasabi hundreds of times, sometime was less "spicy" and sometime veeery spicy, but i never encountered something like this, it was unedible, i was expecting a bit more from a place which just opened up for business, however, the good points are that i wasn't poisoned and the service was acceptable, but they will not see me again, ah ah.

Some years ago, i recall to have seen a news about fake food, not suitable for human or even animal consumption, from South Africa or maybe China....