The article mentions that it's "usually white horseradish, dyed green", and that the real thing "can cost more per pound than even the choice tuna it sits on."
Would be interesting to verifiably taste real wasabi. Who knows, maybe I've never actually even tasted the real thing?
They give you a root, and a grater. Tastes milder than what we get, here.
I have heard that it is impossible to domesticate (has to be harvested wild, on certain mountains). However, I watched a program, where a guy in Hawai'i said he'd figured out how to domesticate it.
It's a difficult plant to grow as it requires specific conditions. Though there are farms in the pacific northwest that have been able to cultivate it successfully.
Here is a decent paper that discusses the challenges[PDF]:
It's still very hard to grow with high failure rates, but you can definitely find plants for affordable prices -- a bit less than 10$, but then you need to manage to keep it alive for 3 years if you want to enjoy it propagate it.
There are a number of good YT videos on how to cultivate it, and some documentaries on professional plantations.
To have it the spiciest you should wait a good ten minutes or more, the spiciness is activated by the process:
"The chemical in wasabi that provides for its initial pungency is the volatile compound allyl isothiocyanate, which is produced by hydrolysis of allyl glucosinolate [...]; the hydrolysis reaction is catalyzed by myrosinase and occurs when the enzyme is released on cell rupture caused by grating" (adapted from wikipedia)
It is difficult to grow but there are multiple producers in the US, and I've occasionally seen it for sale in grocery stores. Some sushi places use it. It is more expensive than the green horseradish/mustard powder, but not prohibitively so.
You can taste the difference but in most contexts it is pretty substitutable with the fake wasabi, hence the ubiquity of the latter.
I'm curious as to why its not possible to grow locally given the growing number of startups growing food in cities in fully controlled environments? for ex: https://youtu.be/VxRNoSSkLkE?t=191
I’ve found real wasabi to actually be a bit milder than some of the horseradish imitators. I suppose I always assumed it’d be even stronger, but that hasn’t been the case in my experience.
If you don't see the sushi chef grinding a little green root fresh on a wasabi grinder and adding a little bit to your rice, it's safe to assume it's not Japanese wasabi.
If you have a Japanese food market near you they might have it. Some specialty grocers can carry it too. If you happen to be in the bay area iirc there's a Wasabi farm in half moon bay.
Even then, it's often not fresh. Real wasabi should be generally consumed within 30 minutes of being ground/grated, before it loses its flavor.
You can absolutely buy some wasabi powder that is made with up to 50% real wasabi on Amazon fairly cheaply, but what you're tasting is still going to be the horseradish. They're basically just selling you the discarded remains of wasabi that isn't actually any good anymore. Still safe to consume, but stale, essentially.
Would be interesting to verifiably taste real wasabi. Who knows, maybe I've never actually even tasted the real thing?