A number of years ago I was completely innocent of wasabi. An interesting restaurant, Yobo, in Newburgh, NY serves an eclectic assortment of asian foods, mostly Indonesian, Thai, and Japanese. I ordered some kind of Japanese steak and the waitress suggested wasabi on the side, adding that it was a "spicy" Japanese condiment.
I said "OK" and smeared a big spoonful of the stuff on my meat – I t was only when I was gasping for breath that I realised a whole lot of people in the room were watching for my first taste of wasabi – they broke out in a mixture of laughs, cheers, applause, and downright mockery . That was my last taste of wasabi – I’ll stick to good old american horseradish…