Which soy sauce to buy, which oyster sauce to buy ? There
are so many choices and a lot of them are of low qualtiy so this article is
intended to help you choose the best ones for your home asian cooking. This is
based upon our many years of owning asian restaurants and constantly trying and
testing new products which come onto the market. We also focus only on the
value price range. At Pan Asia we dont include gourmet products as they are too expensive
and often no better than a good quality medium priced product.
Please note for this article I cannot include pictures
but simpy copy and do a search on google images of the products you are
interested in buying and you will find many images to help you identify when
shopping.
We will start off with the basic asian food ingredients.
Soy Sauce (Light)
The Thai do the
best ones. Healthy Boy light soy sauce is used the world over in Thai
restaurants for a good reason . It is high quality and brewed naturally. It
contains a high percentage of soy and has a great taste
Soy Sauce (Dark)
Used mainly for adding colour to a dish and most people
just buy the cheapest but it does have a taste. Cheap ones taste awful and you
dont want to add that to your dish. THe best we have found and at the best
price is the Pearl River Bridge Superior Dark Soy Sauce. Make sure you buy the
superior brand as it is brewed naturally whereas the the brand that doesnt say
superior is fast tracked through the fermentation process with additives and
colourings
Oyster Sauce
Again the Thai make the best tasting best value oyster
sauce. The Maekrua brand contains the highest percentage of oyster extract than
any other brand i have come across but more importantly it is well balanced and
gives a dish fantastic body. It is a bit of a restaurant secret this ingredient
so make the effort to locate and buy
Chinese Cooking Wine (Shao Xing)
There are actually plenty to choose from that are all
good and at a good price . We use the Pagoda brand as it is well priced and
good quality and sits just above the many cheap brands but doesnt try to be an
expensive specialist wine . THere are two types of Pagoda the Red Label and the
Blue label, either are good however the red loabel is more commonly stocked.
Chek it is the real deal and look for the Pagoda symbol flanked by the words
Pagoda Brand. There are copycats who use the pagoda symbol but they cant use
the words pagoda brand.
Sesame Oil
This is a tricky one. There are products that state 100%
Sesame Oil and yes the oil they use is 100% but it is only part of the product. The rest is a cheap blend of oils to add volume and make you think your buying
a whole bottle of 100% sesame oil. you have to read the labels and the good
ones say 100% Pure Sesame oil which
means exactly that, no added cheaper oils which they have blended with. Chee
Seng is a common quality brand as well as Yeo's, different areas stock
different brands so the important thing here is to just watch for the 100% Pure
Black Vinegar (Chinkiang)
Again this product has to be distilled naturally to gain flavor and aroma, there is one hugely popular brand that is called plum
blossom . It has a bright yellow lable
and is easily spotted with the words Chinkinag on the front. This is as good as
any and is cheap.
All these above ingredients are the staple so your Asian
pantry and they are good quality so you will be getting good results with using
them. The difference between using these good quality brands and cheaper brands
is huge in taste and just not worth the few dollars saved in buying them.
