A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a Canadian company which sells WAFU® Japanese Vinaigrette to see if I’m interested in sampling their dressing. The funny thing is this dressing is actually one of my husband’s favorites, so I happily accepted the offer. This review is based on our own experience and we did not get any compensation from the company other than a dozen of free samples.
WAFU Japanese Vinaigrette comes in four flavors: Original, Original Light (43% less fat than Original), Ginger Carrot, and Wasabi Edamame.
To fully enjoy these salad dressings, I prepared my typical Japanese salad: Iceberg lettuce, sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sliced hard boiled eggs, wakame (seaweed), and kaiware daikon (Daikon radish sprouts).
We had previously tried Original flavor when my husband bought them from the Asian markets. One day, he was really craving the salad dressing Japanese restaurants in our area serve (typically on the salad with lunch and dinner specials). He was really happy he found off-the-shelf dressing that tasted similar. The Original dressing is very tasty. It’s creamy and not too tangy. If you don’t like sour dressings, you don’t have to worry about that. We actually like a little bit of sourness in our dressings, but we still enjoy this dressing very much.
Then we moved on to Ginger Carrot flavor. We never tried this flavor before so we were very excited to try this one out. The dressing has beautiful orange color from the carrot and looks very appetizing on fresh greens. We poured this over on the same Japanese salad and surprisingly the taste was also recognizable. It’s the same or similar flavor as the salad quite a few Japanese restaurants also serve. I could definitely taste the ginger flavor but it’s not too strong that it overpowers the carrot. It’s a great match from these two ingredients.
Lastly we tried Wasabi Edamame. If you are my frequent readers of my blog, you all know that my husband and I don’t like wasabi. I know, I know, I might be the only Japanese grownup who refuses to eat wasabi when I eat sushi. Am I missing it out? It’s okay, I really don’t like the taste… But the first two dressings were really delicious so I tried Wasabi Edamame. Hm… I “can” eat it, so wasabi is not as strong as eating regular wasabi. But let’s just say I rather stay out of the wasabi flavor. Edamame definitely made the wasabi taste milder, but if you don’t like wasabi, you definitely can sense it’s in the dressing.
Over all, we love the dressing very much, even the Light healthy version of the Original flavor. All these dressings are very creamy, yet they are surprisingly not heavy at all. The consistency of the cream is very thin, so the silky texture goes around the salad nicely and it’s just the right amount of tanginess and sweetness. Since we enjoyed these dressing so much, I thought I should share some of the dressing that I received from the company since I could easily buy more from my nearest Japanese and Chinese supermarkets that I go often (They’re not widely available in the US yet, but if you’re in California you can find them in Japanese and Korean stores and in the San Francisco area. Molly Stone’s will be carrying them. You can also order on amazon.com.).
YOU could win one of two sets of WAFU® Japanese Vinaigrette: one (1) set of Original (Light) & Ginger Carrot or one (1) set of Original (Light) & Wasabi Edamame.
To enter, please leave a comment on this post. This giveaway is WORLDWIDE and expires on Sunday, March 4th, 2012 at 12:00 pm PST. Entries that do not meet the entry requirement will not be considered. Winners will be selected by random.org and announced in the post on Monday, March 5th.
Full disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by yours truly.
These sounds delicious, and definitely interesting in the case of the carrot one. Never imagined carrots being part of dressing. You can dress carrots with this and call it double carrot salad:)
Those vinaigrettes sound positively delicious, especially paired with that gorgeous salad of yours!
A very interesting review, Nami. I have never tried any of these dressings. They sound very intriguing and appetising. They also give me some ideas of new home-made dressing combinations… Of course the wasabi idea sounds fantastic to me who likes hot flavours! I must add it to my next vinaigrette and see how it works.
Thank you for organising the giveaway! You are so generous!
I love Japanese salad, but don’t think I’ve tried Wafu dressing before. WOuld love to get the chance to try! thanks for sharing the products with your readers..
haha, I enjoyed that review! Don’t know if we can get that here, so here’s hoping for the wasabi!!!!
Nami-san, I was the one who originally asked about wafu dressing a couple months ago. It seems different to see it as a creamy dressing since the ones I loved so much in Japan were more oil/vinegar mix like what you posted. However, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to try these!!
Also, like you, I don’t really enjoy wasabi on my sushi. I feel it, like eel sauce, masks the clean flavor of the fish and rice. Here in the states, I always order my sushi with no sauce after I learned how very American it is to add too many flavors. Sushi was meant to be a simple taste, not the complicated mess we’ve made of it here in the U.S.
Hi Tracey! I think 80-90% of Japanese restaurants in California (not sure if other parts of US are the same) serve this creamy dressing over the salad. In Japan there are many kinds of dressing available, not just this creamy kind. I have some dressings in my index if you want to take a look at soy sauce base, etc. Thanks! 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/condiment-sauce/
That looks really delicious! The sauce looks very creamy…and as usual, love your photos. 🙂
They sound delicious. I don’t like wasabi either but my husband would love it. Thanks for the chance to win!
Oh how very exciting that this giveaway is worldwide Nami, because we don’t get this product here so would be fantastic to try them.
🙂 Mandy
Nami, I bet those dressing were wonderful!! I love the pictures… well done. 🙂 Have a great week! ~ Ramona
I love Japanese salad ! Your salad with this dressing sound very good and refreshing.
I really need to start visiting our teeny tiny inrternational market. The ginger carrot would be my favorite and the Mr. would go for the wasabi. Wasabi and I don’t get along too well.
Nami you shock me, not liking Wasabi!!!! surely that’s against the law LOL.
Well, I love wasabi and would be just soooo delighted to win your prize with the wasabi endamame.
Thanks, Debs.
I’ve always wanted a good creamy Japanese dressing recipe but winning this gift wouldn’t be so bad 😉
Thanks for the review and giveaway, Nami. I’m intrigued by the idea of a wasabi dressing but not really sure I would enjoy it too much — on the other hand, ginger carrot sounds yummy!