Rakuten sauce-dispensing chopsticks for when you just can't wait

When you've gotta eat, you've gotta eat. And if you can't bear to take an extra 2.5 seconds to dip your sushi in soy sauce before scarfing it, Rakuten's sauce-dispensing chopsticks may be just the thing for you. At about $18 for two sets, this is a lot cheaper than many soy sauce dishes, as well. Still, we suspect that sushi purists will somehow balk at this — though, if they come up with a version that shoots soy sauce from one stick and wasabi from the other, we're down with it.

[Via Slashfood]

[dan @ Dec 31st 2005 12:41PM]

YUCK! some things are left better uninvented!

[John @ Dec 31st 2005 1:02PM]

Stupid. For one reason, that's why you pour your soy in a dipping dish like a normal asian, and mix PRIOR to getting your sushi. It takes as MUCH time to squeeze the damn top as it does to dip. Why do people make these.

[Hunter @ Dec 31st 2005 1:47PM]

I never thought I would see an Engadget post that made me hungry.

[benhc911 @ Dec 31st 2005 1:54PM]

i would assume that with two chopsticks, you could put wasabi in one of them, i dont know about the rate of release. The aparature may have to be altered. :P

[Rishabh Kumar @ Dec 31st 2005 2:34PM]

omg absolutely genius! I would definitely buy a couple sets of these

[Gulic @ Dec 31st 2005 3:39PM]

People don't put extra wasabi on sushi in Japan. It's only in the case of sashimi that you mix it in with your soy sauce. So this works just fine eh?

[Mr. Anonymous Tipster @ Dec 31st 2005 5:05PM]

and yet people still say everything has already been invented...

[Jeff @ Dec 31st 2005 6:32PM]

"People don't put extra wasabi on sushi in Japan. It's only in the case of sashimi that you mix it in with your soy sauce. "



Well that's not true. I know plenty of Japanese people (my wife included) that mix wasabi and soy sauce.



But the right way to do it is to put it on top of the sushi. You do this by picking up a little chunk of it with your chopstick and wiping it off on the sushi. So if you had a chopstick filled with wasabi, it would basically be doing the same thing.



But the point is everybody puts wasabi on sushi in Japan. Everybody. (There's a reason why they give it to you, after all...)

[Jay @ Dec 31st 2005 6:58PM]

Jeff is exactly right.

[James @ Dec 31st 2005 8:21PM]

I don't know when you last went to Japan Jeff, but I've lived there for 10 years and I rarely saw anyone put wasabi on their sushi. You certainly don't receive it with your meal like you do in the states.

[Ashish @ Dec 31st 2005 8:45PM]

FWIW,　I am in Japan right now and ate lunch at a Japanese company with a a group of Japanese who all put wasabi on their sushi before eating.

[mark @ Dec 31st 2005 8:59PM]

supposidly in japan, some sushi has wasabi in it, but only with the sushi chef decides to put it in. he/she decides if wasabi is to go in the sushi ... thus your never given wasabi of your own to mix.



also the green hot reconstituted paste is not actually wasabi, its imitation wasabi made from horseradish.



real wasabi is almost colorless and doesnt have the *kick* of the green playdough we eat in the states.

[Michael Shada @ Jan 1st 2006 2:58AM]

What's next BBQ sauce in our forks?



HOW LAZY ARE YOU PEOPLE!!! Please give me a break.

[Eddie @ Jan 1st 2006 4:27AM]

This is actually useful for people who want to eat sushi on the go. Like on the Train, Bus, Plane or Car where it can be a little difficult to have a separate saucer to put the soy sauce and a packet full of sushi. I do eat sushi on the go and this would definitely be a useful gadget to have.

[Jamar @ Jan 1st 2006 7:16AM]

Just to say about the wasabi debate, I have been to Japan last year, and I never saw anyone eat sushi with wasabi, at least not in the more expensive places. Other, cheaper places do not have wasabi, at least not where I went(Tokyo, small shop in a huge department store in Akihabara, not sure if it still exists), so people will bring their own to add.

[Semi @ Jan 1st 2006 9:43AM]

Happy New Year!! *

[..........? @ Jan 1st 2006 11:07AM]

Sushi=fish + rice. sashimi = fish or spme other seafood and no rice. The stuff you get in most japanese resturant is not real wasabi. The good real stuff are expensive. The traditional way is not mix soy sause and wasabi. People mix soy sause and wasabi together are the people that have not been taught the traditional way. In japan, people there don't eat sushi everyday.

[mike @ Jan 1st 2006 4:00PM]

supposidly in japan, some sushi has wasabi in it, but only with the sushi chef decides to put it in. he/she decides if wasabi is to go in the sushi ... thus your never given wasabi of your own to mix.



----



and if you go to a half-decent restaurant here in NA, there will be wasabi in the sushi in certain rolls. anyone who knows how to make sushi knows it's a hell of a lot easier to put the wasabi INSIDE, than have (customers) put the wasabi on each inidividual piece.



while those chopsticks may look neat on a tech website, they're actually corny... kinda like .. um.. those Homer Simpson beer hats..



convenient.. check.. obnoxious and corny.. uh, yea

[Kyle @ Jan 1st 2006 9:11PM]

You know what? I'm not going to come back here to comment...ever, but I read what some of you wrote, and you're all dumb. Except for the guy with the Japanese wife. There is a damn popular resturant in the Okinawa Prefecture called Yoshi Hachi, he's been in TONS of magazines, had everyone from celebrities to 4 star generals eat at his resturant, every sushi roll comes with wasabi (or if you want to split hairs "fake wasabi"). AND not to mention, every Japanese person I've EVER met mixes the "green fake/not fake/playdough/horseradish rip-off" wasabi with their soy sauce. I know this because I live in Japan.



And another thing, who cares either way? Have you listened to yourselves? You're arguing about how to utilize wasabi. Its up to you! Who cares about how the Japanese eat it, or what REAL WASABI is for that matter. Everyone understands what the green glob is on the trey, and I'm sure they dont care how expensive the real stuff is!



And to who ever said the Japanese dont eat sushi everyday...hmmmm...ever been to a Japanese supermarket? No? Well when your main staple is seafood, more than likely, you're going to eat it quite often. Especially every Family Mart and Lawson (they're convienent stores) carrys the stuff in premade lunches.



Quit arguing about dumb stuff, use the time you wasted writing your witty replies on something more useful...like cross-stitching or putting together a puzzle or paying attention to your kids.



Dont bother replying to my comment, I wont read it, and I couldnt care less either way with what you have to say about me. Good day.



-Kyle-

[Jamar @ Jan 1st 2006 11:50PM]

Another response to number 21- FamilyMart and Lawson? I have been to a Familymart in Tokyo, didn't see any of their bento come with sushi, same with a Lawson that I frequently go to in Shanghai (Yes, Shanghai- until I went to Tokyo, I had no clue that Familymart and Lawson were Japanese stores, always thought that they were Chinese). However, both stores, in China and Japan, carry sushi separately from their bento.

[jorellh @ Jan 2nd 2006 12:34AM]

Interesting video on how to act at a japanese sushi restaurant.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6905089586228877019&q=sushi

[Ashley @ Jan 2nd 2006 11:22AM]

Who the hell cares there chopsticks to eat Sushi wethere you put Wasabi on it or not they are still chopsticks!

[Marke @ Jan 3rd 2006 12:33PM]

As an aside, I worked for a Japanese bank for 14 years and visited our office in Japan on several occasions. And I was dining with Deputy General Managers and Senior Vice Presidents and whatnot, in some of their favorite places in downtown Tokyo, and they do indeed mix wasabi in their soy sauce, although it can be to personal taste. We started with a more expensive platter of sashimi, which was served with a dish of real wasabi instead of the paste. One of the executives made certain to retain the real wasabi for the sushi course. He remarked that it's hard to get sometimes, so when they serve it, hold onto it!

[Dot Flowers @ Jan 3rd 2006 9:19PM]

This would be great for sweet and sour sauce. I wonder if it's too thick?