Every time I go to a Japanese food restaurant to eat sushi or sashimi, I believe that there are friends like me, who will definitely be accompanied by the same seasoning, mustard. This kind of green paste squeezed out of the spice tube, the feeling after the entrance, can be described in four words, "Daigo empowerment". If you don't pay attention, a spicy smell will rush from the nasal cavity to the brain, making people unable to react for a while and a half.
Unlike the condiments such as soy sauce, vinegar, and oyster sauce that we usually come into contact with, the feeling that mustard brings to people is very different, and people who like it will like it very much, while people who can't accept it will feel extremely unpalatable. Like in Japanese home cooking, wasabi is an important spice.
What exactly is wasabi made of? Why did it get a name called "mustard"? Today, Lazy Meow will talk to you about the topic of mustard and explore it together.
The most common mustard we have seen is a green paste like the one below:
In fact, there is not only green mustard, but also yellow mustard like the following picture:
That is to say, the mustard can be divided into two kinds of yellow mustard and green mustard, and different mustards are not the same as the raw materials.
Among them, yellow mustard originated in our country, is ground with the seeds of mustard, the taste is spicy and bitter, and is often used as a seasoning for cold mixed vegetables. As early as the Zhou Dynasty, yellow mustard had already appeared in the court. Green mustard, also known as green mustard spicy, originated in Europe and is made by using horseradish (martens) as a raw material and then adding pigment to make it green. The mustard seasoning in Sushi shops in China is mostly green mustard made with horseradish.
In general, the yellow mustard from China is made from the seeds of mustard greens, and the spicy taste is relatively light, with a slight bitter taste. Originating from Europe, green mustard is made of horseradish, the spicy taste is heavier, and it has a special aroma, and it presents a turquoise color, which is adjusted by food coloring.
If you usually go to a high-end Japanese food restaurant to eat, let the waiter serve some mustard, the waiter may tell you that there is no mustard here, only wasabi sauce, and then a dish of green mustard-like seasoning will be brought out. In some places, words such as mustard, horseradish sauce, and wasabi sauce are also directly marked.
This brings us to another question:
Are mustard, horseradish, and wasabi sauce the same thing?
Mustard, as we have said specifically before, in fact, the most authentic "mustard" is the yellow mustard from our country, which is obtained from mustard seeds. Horseradish, also known as mountain radish, is native to eastern Europe and Turkey and is also the main ingredient in horseradish sauce (green mustard). The wasabi sauce made with wasabi is very similar to green mustard, so many people mistake it for green wasabi.
In fact, wasabi sauce and green mustard are two different things, and it has a special name in Japanese, called "wasabi". Although the appearance is also green, the taste of wasabi sauce is softer and more delicate than that of horseradish sauce (green mustard), the taste is not so rushed, there is no great staying power, but the aftertaste is sweet and refreshing.
It can be said that the taste of wasabi sauce is much better than that of horseradish sauce (green mustard). However, due to the higher requirements for the environment and the longer growth cycle, the yield of wasabi is very small, not as easy to feed as horseradish, so its price is much more expensive than horseradish. That's why we can only see wasabi sauce at more high-end Japanese food stores. In general restaurants, horseradish sauce (green mustard) is used instead of wasabi sauce.
As you can see from the above, mustard, horseradish sauce, and wasabi sauce are three completely different things. The most authentic mustard is actually yellow mustard made of mustard seeds, and the name also echoes with a "mustard" word, which is also the origin of the name of mustard; and horseradish sauce is processed with horseradish, which we habitually call green mustard; wasabi sauce is derived from wasabi, because the price is higher, so the frequency of occurrence is also lower.
After understanding what is made of wasabi and why it is called "wasabi", I believe everyone will still be curious about the question, why do Japanese people like to eat wasabi so much? This brings us to the eating habits of the Japanese people.
The Japanese have a lighter diet and prefer to eat raw food, and seafood accounts for a large part of raw food. If seafood is eaten raw, the fishy taste is heavier, and at this time, it is necessary to match some spices to cover up the fishy smell. Therefore, the Japanese, who do not like to eat chili peppers, and who do not have a variety of spices and spices like China, have chosen mustard to play this role.
However, what I want to tell you is that part of the mustard that Japanese people love to eat is not the green mustard we often say, but the "wasabi sauce" mentioned earlier. The wasabi sauce is less heavy in smell and taste, and the aftertaste is softer.
【Lazy Meow Experience】
After eating wasabi for so many years, some friends still mistakenly believe that there is only one kind of green mustard, and some friends mistakenly think that the mustard that Japanese people often eat is horseradish sauce, and some friends are stupid about horseradish sauce and wasabi sauce. Through the above understanding, I believe that everyone has a deeper understanding of mustard.
There are yellow mustard and green mustard in the mustard, and the name of the mustard is actually derived from "yellow mustard", because it is ground from the seeds of mustard. The wasabi sauce that Japanese people love to eat, although it looks very similar to green wasabi, its essence is not wasabi.
Talk about food in the vernacular, I am lazy meow, a friend who likes food, you can casually click a concern Oh ~ ~