Someone just gave me Chex mix that’s been seasoned with soy sauce and furikake and now I like Chex mix. It was so inedible before
Generally, all things I don’t love eating can be improved with soy sauce. All things I love eating can also be improved with soy sauce.
* good soy sauce, not La Choy and other ‘hydrolyzed’ soy in which no soy fermentation has occurred
@skinnylatte If someone tried to use La Choy "soy sauce" while in Singapore, how concerned would most Singaporeans be?
I usually just buy store-brand low-sodium soy sauce.
What's good soy sauce? What will spoil me for the cheapo stuff? Recommendations?
@jovikowi @catsalad generally I would not buy soy sauce from a store that isn’t a Asian grocer. Same in U.S. and in Europe. In lots of places you can get proper soy sauce but only at Asian stores. Even the Safeway / Whole Foods stuff, is kind of basic if they have it at all. I want like a whole range of good soy sauce. My rule of thumb is if it’s in the ‘ethnic aisle’, it’s not for me. More so if it has a weird dragon font
@catsalad it would be a novelty!
Different cuisine orientation, but I have observe that you can turn damn near anything into food with enough butter & garlic.
@skinnylatte can you recommend some good brands?
@nathandh my standard is Lee Kum Kee premium soy sauce or first draw
https://www.seriouseats.com/do-you-know-your-soy-sauces-japanese-chinese-indonesian-differences
Yamasa for Japanese and Haday for Korean
@skinnylatte But where can you get good soy sauce... I have Pearl River brand ew sauce, kikkoman not very good sauce and something brewed locally, in Rotterdam of all places, but I think even the proprietors of the local Asian shops use Pearl River.
When it comes to laojiu, the shops only have salted, sweetened stuff, and I cannot get anything that's really worth cooking with, let alone drinking.
@halla @skinnylatte is Pearl River bad? It's what we usually buy here, and what my Chinese mother-in-law recommended (though perhaps she couldn't get any better where they lived?).
@skinnylatte Does kikkoman count as “good” soy sauce?
@scunneen there are different Kikkomans. Most of them are better than the average one, the blue and white made in Japan one is very good, there is a lower quality export version made elsewhere i am ambivalent about but would still pick over no soy sauce
@skinnylatte Improves all starches, including mashed potatoes and sweet potato fries.
@funguy2playwith I can get that and others at my local store so I’m very thankful
So glad you say that. I do a lot of European-style cooking for my family at home, and I normally use soy sauce in the process. I agree, if used correctly the sauce merely enhances the natural flavours of the other ingredients, it integrates rather than dominates.
[In the UK, I buy organic soy sauces from a small company called Clearspring. I am no expert but these are leagues above the supermarket ones. https://www.clearspring.co.uk/collections/authentic-japanese-seasonings.]
@the_roamer yes! Soy sauce and even fish sauce in some Italian foods, anything with glutamates really, gives it more body and you don’t taste it at all. Stews too. Sometimes even salad dressing for me (especially with balsamic vinegar). The soy sauce you get looks really good!
Indeed, perfect with certain salads, even if based on European conventions: lettuce, sweet tomatoes, cucumber, dressing from balsamic vinegar and soy sauce.
@skinnylatte that sounds good! I was thinking of making some Chex mix. Real Chex mix from the 70s is fantastic, the stuff they sell as check mix is garbage.
@chad I’ve made it often without knowing the name.
It’s definitely the flavor profile I prefer
@skinnylatte Do you have a favorite furikake, or do you know anyone who has Opinions about it? Thanks!
@Moss I usually get the Ajishima one that’s in all the stores near me
Just the standard nori one, but if I want to do something different I might get the one with bonito and egg