Posted:14 May 2010 16:56 +0100
<p><center><strong>The Teutonic <span style="color: rgb(153, 204, 0);">Wasabi</span> Dream</strong></center></p><p>We are all familiar with the culinary crazes that have begun to flourish one after the other, like summer flowers bringing color into our wintry lives. Some die down after a period, others linger a while, or even become permanent. One such mania that has taken hold of the German nation recently is a rapidly growing obsession with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasabi">wasabi</a>.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Wasabi, or Japanese horseradish as it is otherwise known, is a root traditionally used to spice foods in Japan. Its bite is sour, mustard like, and blazes up through the palate and into the nose.</p><p>In Germany, so-called Wasabi nuts or peas used to only dwell on the shelves of Asian groceries, hidden coyly amidst endless variants of soy and chilli sauces. But in recent years, the nuts have become increasingly abundant amongst the more traditional snacks offered in German supermarkets: namely miniature pretzels, so-called Salzstangen (pretzel sticks), and almost invariably paprika-flavored chips. These peanuts are coated in a beautifully perfect ovoid shell of dusty peagreen crunchiness. On entering your mouth, they will make your senses contract, and sometimes result in tears, or at least a cherry red complexion. The nuts, I will add, are an almost pleasant type of gustatory torture: you tend to go back for more.</p><p><center><img width="214" height="300" alt="" src="../img/ueltje.gif"></img><img width="189" height="280" alt="" src="../img/chio.jpg"></img></center></p><p>What began as a tingling interest, is now burning the nation. Germany has literally entered Wasabiphilia. Jolly, fat bags of lime green chips burst out of every corner of the hypermarket. They are pretty as a Barbie doll is to a six-year old girl, so everyone has to try them at least once, and although they are utterly repugnant, I am sure many Real Men go back for more time and time again. At least two designer chocolate manufacturers have created Wasabi chocolate, one variant being vegan dark chocolate with wasabi, and another a wasabi and algae truffle produced by exotic chocolatier <a href="http://www.coppeneur.de">Coppeneur</a> (weird and wonderful chocolate flavors are another booming market here currently). That lurid green wedge of Edam style cheese I recently spotted reclining on the clinical crushed ice of the cheese counter, nestled cozily between the warm glow of the Tête de Moine and the frigid Provlone, was on closer inspection, not basil as expected, not sage à la Sage Derby, not nettle, or wild garlic, but Wasabi. And inevitably, the drinks cannot be missing, so of course there is a Wasabi liqueur, namely <a href="http://www.hardenberg-wilthen.de/default.php">Hardenberg</a>'s Kleiner Keiler Orange Wasabi & Vodka, available in mini bottles much like the more well-known <a href="http://www.kleinerfeigling.de/">Kleiner Feigling</a>.</p><p><center><img alt="" src="../img/wasabi-cheese.jpg"></img><img alt="" src="../img/coppeneur-schokolade-wasabi-algen.jpg"></img></center></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">So if your taste buds need some spring cleaning, why not set out on a quest to discover the Wasabi grail? Who knows, it may wake some long dormant desires, or at least satisfy an urge to torture unsuspecting guests.</p><p><center><img alt="" src="../img/kk_flasche_ow.jpg"></img></center></p>