Wasabi

Fatty red flesh needs a heat that clears and leaves; chilli would stay too long.

Salt anchors a volatile that would otherwise evaporate before you tasted it.

Vinegared starch under the burn; the sugar shortens it to about two seconds.

Two heats on two nerves — one nasal and fleeting, one on the tongue and sweet.

Volatile heat goes up the nose, salt stays on the tongue. No overlap.

Lean white fish has no fat to hide behind, so it takes the green sweetness.

Marine glutamate gives an aggressive top note somewhere savoury to land.

Volatile heat clears the metallic finish before it can sit down.

Volatile mustard heat clears the palate between mouthfuls of grey starch.

Sweet raw shellfish plus grated stem: the burn reads as extra sweetness.

Fat tames the volatile hit and makes it last past the usual two seconds.

Isothiocyanate burn fades fast against acid, leaving only the green note.

Volatiles evaporate on hot fat and leave a green sweetness on the crust.

Fat holds the isothiocyanates so the burn arrives late and stays put.

Volatile heat clears in seconds and leaves the pea sugar standing.

Volatile heat clears through fat instantly, then vanishes. Chilli cannot do that.

Tako sashimi wants heat that evaporates, not heat that lingers.

Hawaii's move: the fat blunts the burn and leaves only the green behind.

Volatile heat evaporates fast and fat holds it back. The burn arrives late and green.

Sweet water is the perfect vehicle for a burn that dies in three seconds.

The green is isothiocyanate, not leaf aldehyde. Two seconds of burn, then the berry tastes sweeter.

Grilled pupunha sliced like sashimi wants heat that arrives through the nose, not the tongue.

Volatile heat cuts fat and then leaves. Try it before dismissing it.

Isothiocyanate heat clears in seconds; the acid arrives just as it goes.

Isothiocyanate heat is fast and vertical, and pine resin catches it on the way down.