How the Humble Soy Sauce Defines Asian Cuisine
Soy sauce is the not-so-secret secret ingredient behind some of the most popular Asian dishes
What do some of the most popular Asian (in the colloquial sense meaning East Asian) dishes — lo mein from China, bulgogi from Korea, shoyu ramen from Japan — have in common? They all rely on soy sauce for much of their flavor.
Soy sauce is a simple ingredient that you will find if you walk into any Asian home. It’ll probably be sitting by the stove because it’s used so often that it’d be a waste of time to put it away, and it needs to be within reach at all times. It’s used in everything from stir-fries to soups or even as the base of other sauces, like teriyaki sauce. Without soy sauce, we Asians would be lost.
Look at the picture above. It’s a picture I took today when I was at a local Korean supermarket. While there are a few other sauces mixed in there, the vast majority of what is captured in that picture is, you guessed it, soy sauce. If you’ve never been to an Asian market, then you’ve probably never seen a sight like this. Unfortunately, most Western supermarkets only carry a few popular brands of generic soy sauce in their “Ethnic Foods” aisle. If you get the chance, I recommend making a trip to your local Asian supermarket (some popular chains include…
