Unless you’ve been to Japan, it’s likely you’ve never eaten real wasabi. Across the rest of the world, the light-green blob on your sushi is usually the much cheaper, readily available horseradish, dyed green. Horseradish is beige in its natural state.
The two plants come from the same family, Brassicaceae, which also includes broccoli, kale and mustard. They have a similar taste and characteristic nasal pungency due to a compound called allyl isothiocyanate, which is shorter-lived and less potent than the capsaicin found in chillies.
Still, wasabi is regarded as the more intense, sweet and well, noble, of the two. Native to Japan, Korea and far-eastern Russia, it’s notoriously difficult to grow due to the highly specific conditions in these parts – little direct sunlight, continuous water supply and year-round temperatures between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius.
As it turns out, Tasmania’s plentiful rainfall, clean air and cool, consistent climate are just the ticket. It’s one of the few places in the world – let alone Australia – that’s found success cultivating wasabi, alongside the damp Pacific Northwest in North America and Israel’s fertile Golan Heights.
Shima Wasabi, just outside Launceston, has been growing since the early 2000s using only rainwater captured on site and supplies top restaurants across the country, including Tetsuya’s in Sydney and Supernormal in Melbourne. And in good news for home cooks, it also sells fresh stems, leaves and pastes directly to the public.
