Not only is dashi one of the most delicious things on earth, it's necessary for many Japanese meals and cooking techniques. Sure, you've heard of soy sauce, sake, and sushi-- but dashi, a kind of stock, is the real star of Japanese cuisine. You like miso soup? Well, that has a dashi base. What about ramen (not the crap that comes in a bag)? Dashi base. Even the sweet egg sushi simply called tamago (egg in Japanese) has dashi mixed into it.
