Gari shoga is a must-have side dish when you eat sushi. Presentation:
Gari shoga, an essential condiment for sushi
Gari ガリ or called gari shoga is a condiment made from pink marinated ginger strips that you find on your sushi (maki, sashimi, nigiri sushi…) often accompanied by soy sauce and wasabi. It is used to refresh your palate between each bite to better enjoy the next sushi. In France, some people wonder what it is and dare to taste this “pink stuff”… the taste is abominable! Indeed, the gari we know in France has nothing to do with the real taste of Japanese gari.
The real Japanese gari, its origins
The gari that we find in France has been modified by the industrialists in order to have a cheaper product at the expense of the real taste just like wasabi. Here is a comparative table so that you can really understand the differences:
The real gari, the one from Japan You will notice that it is yellowish and slightly pinkish in appearance.
Gari is sold in Asian grocery stores, and most sushi restaurant chains in France Chinese or Indian ginger, salt, rice vinegar, sugar. Lots of acidifiers, coloring agents and preservatives! ( Look carefully at the labels on the back of the package )
The gari on sale in Asian grocery stores, and most of the sushi restaurant chains in France Bleached chemicals! In no way does supermarket gari refresh your palate.
The real gari, the one from Japan A slight taste of ginger, acidic and spicy.
As you can see, real gari is very different from the one we know in France. We realize that industrialists add a lot of colorants and emulsifiers that are bad for our health, so we might as well make it ourselves because it is very simple to make. You just need ginger kintoki or yanaka, rice vinegar, salt, sugar and water. Otherwise you can buy it in an Asian grocery store, looking carefully at the label to be sure that the products used are from Japan.
Gari is eaten with your sushi but you can also eat it simply on rice, in a salad, or in a soup. It is a very good condiment for your health! Be careful though, gari is not eaten on top of nigiri sushi but on its own, when you have finished eating one of the sushi
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Difference between gari shoga and beni shoga
In the shops you will find pink gari(1) or white gari(2), both can be served with sushi. You will find others in much darker strips, even red called beni shoga 紅生姜(3) :These are to be used in the yakisoba(4) (fried Japanese noodles), the okonomiyaki (5) (Japanese savory pancakes) or on a gyudon (6) (large bowl of hot rice with beef strips)