March 30th, 2009
#730 – Nori
Yeah… the first time I had sushi…
Me: “Oh, what is this green stuff?”
Evil person: “It’s called wasabi. It’s a condiment of sorts. You put that on top of the sushi.”
Me: “Ohhggggkkkrkrjhjdrtfhtrbdrth!!!!!!!!”
Also, I met someone at NEWW that asked if I ever made a comic about wasabi. I said I wrote one years ago but never drew it… I hope it was worth the wait. 
March 30th, 2009 at 12:10 am
Looks like the pleasing colours were just a de-KOI.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:12 am
ew, fish water, but I know how wasabi turns your mouth into a scorching oven.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:34 am
How do you pronounce that, Chris?
I demand a forumbound sound file!
March 30th, 2009 at 12:42 am
mint icecream is the goods
March 30th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Wasabi is actually quite weak compared to the stuff we have in New Mexico
March 30th, 2009 at 1:40 am
I used to hate wasabi. more recently, I’ve broadened my horizons on the subject of food, and I tried it again. turns out after the burning it has a glorious flavor. I use it on all my sushi now, which is a lot. Mmm, sashimi yellowtail. Unagi is awesome too.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:49 am
I had Wasabi on some dish of rice and meat once with my ex.
Luckily earlier that day I had a habeñera pepper, so it wasn’t too bad.
March 30th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Ouch, i remember how that hurt. >_>
March 30th, 2009 at 2:46 am
I have been consistently surprised at how mild wasabi is, compared to the usual hot stuff with which I flavor my food…
Maybe I’ve been getting defective wasabi? And if so, to whom does one complain?
March 30th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Last time I had sushi there was a lot of left over wasabi, so being me, I didn’t want to be wasteful. It spooned it onto the last piece and it was all up in my nose and tingling behind my ears. It was like something out of a horror novel.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:01 am
LMAO! I didn’t get what you meant by the mint icecream till i read your blurb under the comic! That’s so funny… man, I bet you were in shock! Do you like spicy food?
March 30th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Mint Ice Cream…. AAAARGH
Lol.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:46 am
Last time I gave my mum some sushi she picked up the bit with the wasabi next to it and… you guessed it… the entire blob of wasabi.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I thnk those lilies look a little bit like pacman with his mouth closed.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:35 am
I too have been victim of the whole blob of Wasabi. My dad didn’t bother telling exactly how hot it is until I put it all in my mouth. It hurt.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:44 am
While I normally don’t like anything spicier than black pepper, I make an exception to wasabi. It seems to work wonderfully on colds and sore throats, if you can stand the heat of it. I only ever have a little bit though, never a whole blob.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Dear God…
This is the first time another living thing has been in the same frame as Biff.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:47 am
i love wasabi (^_^)
March 30th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Sashimi isn’t actually sushi! Sashimi is raw fish, whereas the only required constituent of sushi is rice!
March 30th, 2009 at 10:59 am
i’d say more guacamole than mint ice cream.
although one thing about wasabi spicy that makes it a little better than chili spicy is that the burn doesn’t linger…
March 30th, 2009 at 11:30 am
So this week’s theme are comics-buried-in-Chris’s-desk-and-while-entertaining-bring-up-long-repressed-nightmares?
March 30th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hmmm…… Bif doesnt know much about Japanese food does he? Id guess cuisine week. Or Cuisine Food Accident week, seeing as how Biff is accident prone.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I love wasabi — and I don’t find it mouth-scorchingly hot. Then again, I used to eat chili peppers straight from the garden as a kid.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Wasabi is kind of weak. I usually just spread it on some bread or eat it as it is.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Wasabi is trying to take over the world I tells ya! THE WORLD!
March 30th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Biff has obviously cleared his overstuft head from last week… viva! the power of the wasabi burn.
March 30th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Haha, for a minute I skimmed over the mint ice cream part of the caption, and thought Biff was getting sashimi “straight from the source”.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
My brother lived in India for two years. He came back and made us curry. We were all crying and junk and he was like GUYS THIS IS LIKE AN EIGHTH AMOUNT OF THE SPICE I USUALLY USE
yeah it buurrnnneeddd
March 30th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
So like, what. Is this a copy of the original EFG? I mean, he even has his huge eyebrows.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
@ Grug
No it isn’t it happened a lot in the older comics but became against the rule (according to a FAQ i read somewhere) this being a remake of a old comic, i guess that makes it an exception.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I don’t think I’ll ever have wasabi since the last time I had it left me unable to taste anything else. But otherwise I like lobster sushi
March 30th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
@MadDavid – True that! i NEVER order anything labelled ’spicy,’ when I go to NM. i trust that anything mild will be enough to satiate my need for heat.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
when i first looked at the comic, I though he was dunking his head in a really spiffy waterbed…
March 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
@EFG – who?
@-2! – This is the first time this has been drawn, it’s not a remake.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
ouch
March 30th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
experience…. when i first had sushi i was wondering what wasabi was til i decided to play jackass and just take a big heaping bite of nothing but wasabi….. i woke up in a hospital 3 days later
March 30th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
OMG WTF BBQ in mah mouth!!!!!!
I like wasabi though
March 30th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
If anyone wants an idea of how strong it is, think of it like this. It sent Biff, a man who has survived buzz saws and explosions, running for the water.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
i dared somebody $10 to have an entire packet (about 10g) of wasabi on his last piece of sushi, he spat it back out after about 5 mins of chewing so i have him $5 for trying XD
March 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Hahahahaha!
wasabi is freakin’ evil.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:37 am
I once was on a date with a guy who told me about taking a friend to have sushi for the first time. “What’s this green stuff?” his friend asked. “It’s green tea paste. You take that whole blob and spread it all over your food,” he replied.
“Were you ever a Boy Scout?” I asked.
“Eagle. Why?”
Moral of the story: never let an Eagle Scout get you to do anything they don’t do first.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:11 am
i saw the title for the comic, and figured it was about sushi before i even saw/read the comic…but thats mostly because i make my own sushi from time to time…great name for a comic, chris.
i will admit the comic text confused me, though. i dont even consider wasabi or ginger in my sushi eating habits. your blurb cleared that right up.
March 31st, 2009 at 3:26 am
When I first came to the US and had pancakes in the morning I thought it came with a scoop of icecream.
It was not.
It was salted butter.
I hate salted butter.
Wasabi is not so bad, try eating the pieces of ginger that come with it for that extra special taste.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:02 am
Wasabi isnt actually HOT, its a retronasal flavour, as opposed to chillies and other spices which are irritants.
Retronasal flavours happen behind your nose, literally, creating a reaction thorugh your olfactory glands.
Irritants, such as Chillies, create a pseudo allergic reaction in pretty much everything that absorbs it (really strong ones can cause a burning sensation on your lip, hands and eyes if you are not careful!)
I love Spicy foods!
GS
March 31st, 2009 at 11:02 am
I know someone who grew chillis. They were so hot, you only needed a really small piece of one toflavour a whole pot of food.
Also, tabasco!
April 1st, 2009 at 3:20 am
@Marr965: Sounds like this one hot sauce I heard of in Colorado. It was so hot, you needed to sign a waiver just to try the tip of a toothpick dipped in it. A friend of mine tried it, and as soon as it touched his tongue, his eyes were watering, he started sweating and coughing. It was pretty funny.
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:51 am
Myself and a friend used to go to a sushi place rather often, they would serve the wasabi in small marble sized balls on the side of the plate. We used to challenge each other to see who could eat the most of these by eating them one at a time. I would always give up after the third while he would eat a fourth.
I hope the resulting bathroom trip the next day was a good prize for him lol.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
@ Chris
I fail at wording, i meant that it is a make of an old not drawn comic.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
It might be spicy but it sure clears out the sinuses. Great if you have a cold
April 10th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I agree with The Random Poster, also, the spicyness wears off fairly quickly, for me at least.
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Most wasabi you get in restaurants is just a paste of horseradish, mustard seeds, and food coloring; an imitation. That’s why it never seems all that hot in the cheap restaurants.
Also, my mom was eating green tea ice cream in a sushi restaurant and the lady next to her said “… You must REALLY like Wasabi!”
So uh… yeah.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I thought it was pudding the first time I had it… Mmmm, if anyone in the restaurant had been asleep before that first bite, they certainly weren’t after.
August 8th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Hahaha; Nice.
Personally I like to mix my wasabi in with my soy sauce so that it intensifies the flavor
August 28th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
hmmm, hey chris, have you ever tryed wasabi gum?
and that just game me a idea for a biff comic, bacon gum
September 28th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I remember a while back, I was eating in a restaurant when some older ladies walked in and sat at a table behind me. I was never fond of wasabi and they didn’t know what it was. They each took a spoonful of the wasabi and ate it. Their reaction was hilarious.
December 31st, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I did nearly the same thing – only I thought the pickled ginger they gave me was salmon.
January 12th, 2010 at 4:45 am
I hate the ginger, but the wasabi is great.
I love the wasabi spice though, because unlike mexican peppers, the pain is like “HOLYWHATTHEINTHENAMEOFTHEoh. My sinuses are clear. That wasn’t wholly unpleasant.”
I have a theory, I can’t have ‘too much’ wasabi in hindsight.
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:25 am
I had this happen once. We were at a Chinese restaurant that served green-tea-flavoured ice cream, and I got up to use the restroom. The food had arrived while I was gone, and when I got back I saw small dishes filled with green stuff and assumed it was a Chinese custom to eat dessert first…
BURNING PAIN!