Yuzu and Sudachi

Anyone have any experience with these Japanese citrus ? I've been seeing their mention in various publications and picked up some bottles at the Ferry Terminal in San Fransisco last week. Have only opened the yuzu as of yet. Intense grapefruit nose and lime ish taste but different. Tried it so far on steamed asparagus , in a riff on Ming Tsai's lemon rice - substituting the yuzu for the called for lemon and a salad of papaya and mango. The aroma is very intense and lingers even in the cooked dish. The citrus flavor is amped and brighter than either lemon or lime with a definite difference .Very interesting. No one in San Fran had the fresh fruit.

[Robin Garr]

I've had some dishes at "fusion" restaurants that claimed yuzu as an ingredient, and liked them but couldn't honestly say I was able to pick out a specific identifiable flavor and say "There! That's the yuzu."

[Jenise]

I've only seen fresh yuzu once, in a small upscale Japanese market. But I do own bottles of the juice--love it combined with soy sauce for a fresh, tart sushi dipping sauce. I sometimes use it to make an Asian salad dressing too, for a slaw or to pickle some enoki mushrooms as a garnish. I think you characterized it well--grapefruit, lime and tangerine flavors, all at once. Sudachi no, haven't run into that one at all.

Jenise, you've invented PONZU SAUCE!

Great stuff, and delicious on all sorts of things. One of my Harumi cookbooks has you cook steak, cut it into chopstick friendly squares, and serve with Ponzu as a dipping sauce. Surprisingly nice.

While I have Asian groceries nearby that I visit all the time, they are Korean and Chinese. The nearest real Japanese supermarket is a twisty complicated 40 minute drive away (Mitsuwa) so that I just can't talk myself into going. Yuzu and Sudachi are so specifically Japanese that evidently the local Korean and Chinese populations are uninterested -- otherwise the produce sections are really good at my local stores. You can get lots of Japanese items at the Korean stores -- noodles, snack foods, things easy to store. But not produce.

[Jenise]

Jenise, you've invented PONZU SAUCE!

Great stuff, and delicious on all sorts of things. One of my Harumi cookbooks has you cook steak, cut it into chopstick friendly squares, and serve with Ponzu as a dipping sauce. Surprisingly nice.

While I have Asian groceries nearby that I visit all the time, they are Korean and Chinese. The nearest real Japanese supermarket is a twisty complicated 40 minute drive away (Mitsuwa) so that I just can't talk myself into going. Yuzu and Sudachi are so specifically Japanese that evidently the local Korean and Chinese populations are uninterested -- otherwise the produce sections are really good at my local stores. You can get lots of Japanese items at the Korean stores -- noodles, snack foods, things easy to store. But not produce.

Yes, Ponzu!

The Asian marketplace in Southern California was wonderful, Frank. We lived in Huntington Beach and parts of the next town over, Westminster, became known as Little Saigon in the years post-Boat Life years where a huge Vietnamese population settled. They opened these shops without becoming Westernized first, so most of the stores were crowded, smelly and on the dirty side. It wasn't unusal to be greeted at the door with the combined and overpowering third world smells of rotting fish and moth balls--which actually became part of the charm, for me. Ten miles from home, I was in a weird and exotic land, a world apart and usually the only white person in the store. Most of the stores were independent, but some of the stores were part of a chain that exists even up here in Seattle, Ranch 99 Market which seem to take on the look and feel of whatever Asian community that shops there. So used to the ratty one in Westminster, it was quite something when I stopped in at one in Irvine, a more affluent town 20 miles east of us. That part of Irvine had a large Japanese community and this Ranch 99 market reflected their expectations: brand-new looking, no smells, pristeen-everything, shiny floors gleaming with wax. Hospital clean and orderly. Lots of unusual fruits and sauces of kinds I'd not seen before, an incredible fresh seafood counter of course, and the rice aisle. Oh my! Every day rices and cadillac rices, rices that ran as much as $25 for a five pound bag. Shopping there made me realize how little I understand everything possible about Japanese food.

In Japan, yuzu is an absolutely amazing flavor. But like so many other ingredients in this world, thus far I've been disappointed with specimens grown outside of Japan. Must be the terroir!

On the positive side, these 'problems' make traveling worthwhile!