Wasabizuke ✦

Wasabizuke

What it is

Merchants in Fuchū, now Shizuoka, worked it out when local sake brewing took off late in the Edo period: the lees were a by-product, and wasabi grew in the spring-fed streams above the town. It was sold on the platform from the day Shizuoka station opened in 1889 and has been the local souvenir since.

In the kitchen

The heat is volatile and rises through the nose: serve it cold, straight from the jar, and never cook it. A teaspoon on white fish, on grilled pork or on a slice of cheese; stirred into a hot sauce it is gone within a minute.

Goes with

Sake kasu Junmai sake Rice Gilt-head bream Squid Butter

Same species

Hanawasabi (wasabi flower stems) Wasabi

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