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.
I’m a purist when it comes to salads (no tomatoes, onion, cucumber) so I usually just have Caesar salads or coleslaw with a creamy, sweetish dressing, but I wouldn’t mind tasting the original or ginger variations. I love sushi with wasabi but don’t really care for the taste of edamame.
wasabi and edamame independent of one another are AMAZING so I am kind of intrigued to try that one!
This sounds so good! I have been looking for a good Japanese dressing..
Your blog is great! Thank you for showing me how to wrap a wonton.
The dressing sound really nice. Thanks for the review, I wish I could buy them at my local shop. I am a fan of goma (sesame) dressing but would love to try other flavours!! 🙂
I’m game to try all of the WAFU dressing flavours! Delighted if I should win and thanks for making the giveaway WORLDWIDE…I really dislike those sites that limit the pool to only one specific area, for WHATEVER reason. Makes many blogreaders feel second class.
I enjoyed reading this post, ad I too love this dressing and feel the same about Wasabi. I loved all the dressings when I bought it at a cultural fair in Washington DC a few years ago. Unfortunately, I have since moved to HI and they don’t sell the dressing here so I would love to.win some! Thank you!
Holly:
You can find WAFU Japanese Vinaigretes in Hawaii at Don Quijotes and at certain Foodland stores in Honolulu (in the R Fields section).
Otherwise you can also buy them on Amazon.com.
That looks like some yummy vinaigrette!
looks so good and never have tried these dressings
Ha too funny I have mentioned this company to you before in the past and I just bought a bottle this weekend as I ran out, this is my FAVORITE salad dressing of all times. I have only tried the original though.
The dressings are also great for dipping and marinating. 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 Fran area, Molly Stone’s will be carrying them. You can also order Wafu on amazon.com.
It’s so rare to find a bottled dressing that’s really tasty! Thanks for your review and recommendation 🙂
I leave wasabi while eating Sushi.
Love your salad, being gluten free I use japanese soy sauce(Tamari). Are these other dressings gluten free?
Hmm….the package doesn’t mention it’s glueten free.
Yummo!
The ginger and carrot sounds amazing!