-->
Don’t let those cheap Chinese Food take-out packets fool you. Good soy sauce is brewed like beer, aged like fine wine and is as mold intensive as the smelliest French cheese.
The difference between cheap soy sauce and the good stuff is process and product. Good soy sauce begins with soybeans, wheat, salt and water. It is then fermented, aged and pasteurized. The other stuff begins with something called hydrolyzed soy protein. What happens after that is too difficult to understand let alone explain, but I think you get the picture.
Sweet, salty, sour and bitter are the four tastes we all learned about in school, but soy sauce is a major source of the more recently identified umami. Umami means savory which is why the addition of a good sauce soy sauce can add another level of complexity to your food.
Until living in Japan, I thought soy sauce was nothing more than the Asian solution for table salt. With that in mind, I had no problem pouring it over mounds of white rice which roughly equates to smothering an aged T-bone in ketchup. In Japan etiquette dictates that food should be dipped in soy sauce then lightly touched to rice before it is consumed.
I’m telling you all this for two reasons.
Reason #1:
I couldn’t find gyoza wrappers in my hardcore Latin neighborhood though I did find empanada wrappers. The promised gyoza recipe will be posted Thursday.
I couldn’t find gyoza wrappers in my hardcore Latin neighborhood though I did find empanada wrappers. The promised gyoza recipe will be posted Thursday.
Reason#2:
More often than not, our collective soy sauce experience is limited to those tasteless packets, but picking up a bottle of Kikkoman, or another reputable brand, won’t break the bank and will bring a lot more umami goodness to your Asian meals.
For more Traveling Taste Buds, click here to have updates sent to your email for free.
More often than not, our collective soy sauce experience is limited to those tasteless packets, but picking up a bottle of Kikkoman, or another reputable brand, won’t break the bank and will bring a lot more umami goodness to your Asian meals.
Seriously, I could bathe in soy sauce. I love the stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere is a big Asian store in Atlanta called Super H...Everytime, we visit family, I stock up on great soy sauce.
ReplyDeleteHow is the vegan diet going?
Great post - I've avoided it for a long time for those reasons. Will remember to stay open to using the good stuff and using it correctly.
ReplyDeletemoderation
ReplyDeleteHey Guys,
ReplyDeleteHaven't started the vegan diet yet, but it is heavily on my mind. I guess we can all agree on a love of good soy sauce. Here here!
Can't wait for the gyoza recipe! :D
ReplyDeleteYes, amen to soy sauce!
ReplyDeleteGood soy sauce makes a big difference in some dishes (I haven't had them all). In fact, I can still remember meals from 30 years ago, not for the entree but for the soy sauce!
ReplyDeleteSo it seems we all know the real deal when it comes to soy sauce. Share the info with your friends and family.
ReplyDeleteMy boyfriend is a soy sauce addict! Did you see the episode of Next Iron Chef where they had to make 4 (I think) dishes, each to be dipped in a different variety of kikkoman soy sauce? It was my boyfriend's food porn dream come true!
ReplyDelete