I'm one of the soy sauce simps the article refers to. Kikkoman is my go-to brand. I have to ask the soy sauce connoisseurs here at Tildes: what is your recommendation, if any, to go to the next level?
I'm one of the soy sauce simps the article refers to. Kikkoman is my go-to brand. I have to ask the soy sauce connoisseurs here at Tildes: what is your recommendation, if any, to go to the next level?
It's Yamasa for me. It has a noticable difference in taste but I find it really difficult to describe. Lee Kum Kee is my number 2. If you're outside of an Asian country, the most important thing...
It's Yamasa for me. It has a noticable difference in taste but I find it really difficult to describe. Lee Kum Kee is my number 2.
If you're outside of an Asian country, the most important thing is to match the soy sauce for the kind of cuisine you are cooking. Yamasa and Kikkoman are great for Japanese cooking. Complicating things somewhat is that there is more than one kind of soy sauce. Like the article mentioned; it tends to be a regional thing, and that only becomes more pronounced as you go across Asia. You don't necessarily need to have a perfect match to make good food, but it's kind of like Parmesan cheese; you can make that style anywhere, but it's never quite the same as the stuff made in those regions of Italy.
Not being a foodie or particularly knowledgeable about soy sauces, a few years ago I went down the "soy sauce imports" rabbit hole at my local Korean grocers and on Amazon. I ended up with a bunch...
Not being a foodie or particularly knowledgeable about soy sauces, a few years ago I went down the "soy sauce imports" rabbit hole at my local Korean grocers and on Amazon. I ended up with a bunch of wildly different soy sauces, including the Japan-import Kikkoman, a Yamasan soybean/wheat I still haven't opened, as well as dark and light soy sauces from Pearl River Bridge. I also got some Aji Mirin rice seasoning (I didn't realize it's alcoholic, but it's fun). It's been a fun experience just trying out different things with these new flavors and consistencies.
I haven't tried out a Lee Kum Kee soy sauce, but I really like their chili oil on dumplings. And add in some malt vinegar with the chili oil and it's a wild dipping experience. :D Not that I can taste anything afterwards, haha.
Have you tried Chinese black vinegar by the way? :) I think you'd love it on your dumplings if you like malt vinegar chili. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhenjiang_vinegar...
Have you tried Chinese black vinegar by the way? :) I think you'd love it on your dumplings if you like malt vinegar chili.
In general they're a sweet vinegar, much higher ph than your white or malt vinegar. You can drink it, and you can give it a big whiff without burning your nostrils :3
First thing, if you're happy with what you have: stay there and enjoy! There's no rush to complicate every ingredient chasing a possible improvement. That said, if you find that Kikkoman is just...
First thing, if you're happy with what you have: stay there and enjoy! There's no rush to complicate every ingredient chasing a possible improvement. That said, if you find that Kikkoman is just kinda dark salt-water with a little savory underneath, an easy start is switching from Japanese style soy sauce to Chinese style. I find them to be much more savory and better for dipping and forming sauces in stir fry.
The biggest brands out there are Wan Ja Shan and Kimlan. I can get Kimlan's stuff at most grocery stores around here in the urban US south so you might be able to get some locally.
"Kimlan Super Special Naturally Fermented" is my go-to. It's first notes are really damn savory, then the salt hits you but nowhere as hard as Kikkoman. People say this is due to the much longer fermentation time (9-12 months) and possibly using more wheat.
There's also a wide world of dark, sweet, and "finishing" soy sauces but personally I only have a bottle of the dark stuff in addition to the normal variety and rarely use it. I believe it's lee kum kee's premium stuff but since it's the only kind I could get I have no clue if it's "good"; it works well for the recipes I use it in though.
Chinese soy sauce are more "invisible" for me....maybe because I'm Cantonese and it's just the default taste. Japanese soy sauce always has a bit of an alcohol layer to me.....sort of like a tiny...
Chinese soy sauce are more "invisible" for me....maybe because I'm Cantonese and it's just the default taste. Japanese soy sauce always has a bit of an alcohol layer to me.....sort of like a tiny bit of that rice vinegar bite. Which is why I don't tend to cook with it: draws too much attention to itself. So it's great when I want it there, like making Japanese carrot ginger soy sauce salad dressing.
But yes 100x if one likes it just stay there, it's totally fine.
Huh, that's interesting. Growing up with Japanese soy sauce, I always felt that Chinese soy sauces felt thicker and more aggressive in flavor. I guess it really does come down to what you're used to.
Huh, that's interesting. Growing up with Japanese soy sauce, I always felt that Chinese soy sauces felt thicker and more aggressive in flavor. I guess it really does come down to what you're used to.
Well we do have dark soy sauce and bean sauce which packs a punch :) But yeah I think we're more attuned to picking up things we find different. eg I'm much more sensitive to detecting spiciness...
Well we do have dark soy sauce and bean sauce which packs a punch :)
But yeah I think we're more attuned to picking up things we find different. eg I'm much more sensitive to detecting spiciness than my friends who grew up eating Szechuan or Korean cuisine.
Buy at Asian Markets, the more authentic, and immigrant focused, the better. They're often priced a lot better as well. Recently, a large "Asia Mall" opened within driving distance, and the...
Buy at Asian Markets, the more authentic, and immigrant focused, the better. They're often priced a lot better as well.
Recently, a large "Asia Mall" opened within driving distance, and the supermarket was nowhere as good as the nearby local market.
Ok but to be fair, those markets sell Kikoman too. I never know which soy sauces to get for which application and I found one I really liked and promptly forgot which of the three I had it was.
Ok but to be fair, those markets sell Kikoman too. I never know which soy sauces to get for which application and I found one I really liked and promptly forgot which of the three I had it was.
The Japanese markets near me actually sell imported Japanese Kikkoman! Kikkoman has a US plant so the most common stuff you see here is a domestic product. That being said, I don't really notice...
The Japanese markets near me actually sell imported Japanese Kikkoman! Kikkoman has a US plant so the most common stuff you see here is a domestic product. That being said, I don't really notice much of a difference between the US and Japanese stuff. It's probably there, but without years of familiarity or having them side-by-side, I don't think most people would notice.
I figured I wouldn't be able to tell! We have just one East Asian (primarily Chinese but not exclusively) market locally and they have a bunch of options which I can.... Sort of tell the...
I figured I wouldn't be able to tell! We have just one East Asian (primarily Chinese but not exclusively) market locally and they have a bunch of options which I can.... Sort of tell the difference between but not enough to retain which one I like best.
They sell a double fermented shoyu https://kikkomanusa.com/homecooks/products/double-fermented-shoyu/ And tamari are fairly accessible by now in major cities...
Pearl River Bridge for sure -- you usually need to go to an Asian supermarket but I've never found anything better. But I cook mostly Chinese stuff, so Kikkoman usually isn't suitable bc it's not...
Pearl River Bridge for sure -- you usually need to go to an Asian supermarket but I've never found anything better. But I cook mostly Chinese stuff, so Kikkoman usually isn't suitable bc it's not the same kind of soy sauce rather than because of its quality. The ligh vs dark soy distinction is a bigger deal for Chinese cooking. But in any case I basically copied this recommendation from my Chinese-American college roommate.
It's incredibly common in the US, nearly ubiquitous in the Sushi/Japanese restaurants I've been to though obviously anecdotal. It's also just a particularly distinctive bottle shape so people...
It's incredibly common in the US, nearly ubiquitous in the Sushi/Japanese restaurants I've been to though obviously anecdotal. It's also just a particularly distinctive bottle shape so people remember and recognize it easily
I'm one of the soy sauce simps the article refers to. Kikkoman is my go-to brand. I have to ask the soy sauce connoisseurs here at Tildes: what is your recommendation, if any, to go to the next level?
It's Yamasa for me. It has a noticable difference in taste but I find it really difficult to describe. Lee Kum Kee is my number 2.
If you're outside of an Asian country, the most important thing is to match the soy sauce for the kind of cuisine you are cooking. Yamasa and Kikkoman are great for Japanese cooking. Complicating things somewhat is that there is more than one kind of soy sauce. Like the article mentioned; it tends to be a regional thing, and that only becomes more pronounced as you go across Asia. You don't necessarily need to have a perfect match to make good food, but it's kind of like Parmesan cheese; you can make that style anywhere, but it's never quite the same as the stuff made in those regions of Italy.
Not being a foodie or particularly knowledgeable about soy sauces, a few years ago I went down the "soy sauce imports" rabbit hole at my local Korean grocers and on Amazon. I ended up with a bunch of wildly different soy sauces, including the Japan-import Kikkoman, a Yamasan soybean/wheat I still haven't opened, as well as dark and light soy sauces from Pearl River Bridge. I also got some Aji Mirin rice seasoning (I didn't realize it's alcoholic, but it's fun). It's been a fun experience just trying out different things with these new flavors and consistencies.
I haven't tried out a Lee Kum Kee soy sauce, but I really like their chili oil on dumplings. And add in some malt vinegar with the chili oil and it's a wild dipping experience. :D Not that I can taste anything afterwards, haha.
Have you tried Chinese black vinegar by the way? :) I think you'd love it on your dumplings if you like malt vinegar chili.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhenjiang_vinegar
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_vinegar
In general they're a sweet vinegar, much higher ph than your white or malt vinegar. You can drink it, and you can give it a big whiff without burning your nostrils :3
First thing, if you're happy with what you have: stay there and enjoy! There's no rush to complicate every ingredient chasing a possible improvement. That said, if you find that Kikkoman is just kinda dark salt-water with a little savory underneath, an easy start is switching from Japanese style soy sauce to Chinese style. I find them to be much more savory and better for dipping and forming sauces in stir fry.
The biggest brands out there are Wan Ja Shan and Kimlan. I can get Kimlan's stuff at most grocery stores around here in the urban US south so you might be able to get some locally.
"Kimlan Super Special Naturally Fermented" is my go-to. It's first notes are really damn savory, then the salt hits you but nowhere as hard as Kikkoman. People say this is due to the much longer fermentation time (9-12 months) and possibly using more wheat.
There's also a wide world of dark, sweet, and "finishing" soy sauces but personally I only have a bottle of the dark stuff in addition to the normal variety and rarely use it. I believe it's lee kum kee's premium stuff but since it's the only kind I could get I have no clue if it's "good"; it works well for the recipes I use it in though.
Chinese soy sauce are more "invisible" for me....maybe because I'm Cantonese and it's just the default taste. Japanese soy sauce always has a bit of an alcohol layer to me.....sort of like a tiny bit of that rice vinegar bite. Which is why I don't tend to cook with it: draws too much attention to itself. So it's great when I want it there, like making Japanese carrot ginger soy sauce salad dressing.
But yes 100x if one likes it just stay there, it's totally fine.
Huh, that's interesting. Growing up with Japanese soy sauce, I always felt that Chinese soy sauces felt thicker and more aggressive in flavor. I guess it really does come down to what you're used to.
Well we do have dark soy sauce and bean sauce which packs a punch :)
But yeah I think we're more attuned to picking up things we find different. eg I'm much more sensitive to detecting spiciness than my friends who grew up eating Szechuan or Korean cuisine.
Buy at Asian Markets, the more authentic, and immigrant focused, the better. They're often priced a lot better as well.
Recently, a large "Asia Mall" opened within driving distance, and the supermarket was nowhere as good as the nearby local market.
This also goes for Hispanic, or Halal goods.
Ok but to be fair, those markets sell Kikoman too. I never know which soy sauces to get for which application and I found one I really liked and promptly forgot which of the three I had it was.
The Japanese markets near me actually sell imported Japanese Kikkoman! Kikkoman has a US plant so the most common stuff you see here is a domestic product. That being said, I don't really notice much of a difference between the US and Japanese stuff. It's probably there, but without years of familiarity or having them side-by-side, I don't think most people would notice.
I figured I wouldn't be able to tell! We have just one East Asian (primarily Chinese but not exclusively) market locally and they have a bunch of options which I can.... Sort of tell the difference between but not enough to retain which one I like best.
Any specific cuisine, really. I go to a shop that just does German and Eastern European food when I have a craving for that, too.
They sell a double fermented shoyu
https://kikkomanusa.com/homecooks/products/double-fermented-shoyu/
And tamari are fairly accessible by now in major cities
https://www.thekitchn.com/the-difference-between-tamari-and-soy-sauce-ingredient-intelligence-174139
But for good and cheap I would suggest a Cantonese fish steaming soy sauce : try it with a fresh trout and even microwave it
https://ca.lkk.com/en/products/seasoned-soy-sauce-for-seafood
Pearl River Bridge for sure -- you usually need to go to an Asian supermarket but I've never found anything better. But I cook mostly Chinese stuff, so Kikkoman usually isn't suitable bc it's not the same kind of soy sauce rather than because of its quality. The ligh vs dark soy distinction is a bigger deal for Chinese cooking. But in any case I basically copied this recommendation from my Chinese-American college roommate.
My partner’s family is from the Philippines and she will only buy Silver Swan soy sauce.
I don't think I have ever seen that brand, am I the only one?
Kikkoman? It's fairly popular and common across North America I thought? Where are you located, out of curiosity?
I am in northern New England. I do not really eat out at Asian restaurants anymore, we just do take out and eat at home. Maybe this is why?
Yeah I am sure I have eaten it before but have paid attention to the bottle.
It's incredibly common in the US, nearly ubiquitous in the Sushi/Japanese restaurants I've been to though obviously anecdotal. It's also just a particularly distinctive bottle shape so people remember and recognize it easily