Yesterday I bought a 43g tube of WASABI PASTE from Lidl for 79P, as I like spicy food.
I've just checked the ingredients.
It is 85% Horseradish!!! And also horseradish oil as well lower down in the ingredient list. It also has mustard to make it more spicy.
Only 3.5% of wasabi POWDER so it's not even got real wasabi in it.
I am going to return it ASAP.
But how do they get away with calling it wasabi paste?
My cousin's father-in-law used to make the hottest horseradish sauce. I'm not into spicy food but it would win prizes every year at country fairs for being spicy and tasty.
Isn't it funny that we've had horseradish sauce on tables for centuries but the youngsters come along and decide importing a similar product from halfway around the world makes it the better product.
I've no idea how they get away with it but I assume they've done it legally. I'd keep it. I doubt you'd get a similar sized jar of horseradish sauce for the same price and it might be delicious.
I just had a wander on Tesco. A Polish brand (Smak) has 4% horseradish, Coleman's has 34%. They only have two wasabi-type sauces. Thai Dragon Sriracha (£1.70 for 200ml) has Wasabi Paste 0.7% (Horseradish, Wasabi, Humectant (Sorbitol), Salt, mustard Oil) and Yogiyo Hot & Zingy Chilli and Wasabi sauce has Wasabi Paste (3%) (Horseradish, Wasabi, Corn Starch, soybean Oil, Water, Salt, Flavouring).
I did a quick Google and found a few articles saying that wasabi is so expensive you're probably not eating the real thing.
"Because of its price the "
wasabi" you're used to is probably just a mixture of horseradish, coloring, and sweetener. These products often only have 1-5% of the real thing in.
Wasabi is known for being the hardest plant to grow commercially in the world."
Reading that I'm glad I just have a large addiction to cranberry and mint sauces!
