dim sum sauce battle: what is the best sauce for dim sums?
DESCRIPTION
Dim sum itself is a delish one to treat yourself, but with the good choice of sauce you will have the perfect taste of dim sum. Check dim sum menu at http://www.mott32.com/menu/TRANSCRIPT
Are you curious about all the different saucesavailable at dim sum restaurants? In myexperience, some people can be a bit wary abouttrying new sauces and flavours. Dim sum tastesgreat and is really fun to eat, but it's the saucesthat really take dim sum over the top.
Every Chinese dipping saucehas a different flavor profileand recipe. Don't beintimidated to try the differentsauces we have - with thishandy guide I have puttogether, you'll be able to learnabout the major sauces anddecide which ones sound thebest in no time!
The first sauce is the simple chili oil. Chili oil is madewith chili peppers and oil, such as peanut. Everyrestaurant has their own twist on chili oil, because anycombination and amount of chili peppers can appear inthe recipe depending on the chef. They share one thingin common- chili oil is usually spicy! It goes great withthe steamed dim sum dishes.
Hoisin dipping sauce uses, of course, hoisin as aprimary ingredient, along with other supplementalflavors like peanut, soy, ginger, and garlic. Hoisinsauce tends to be thick- spread it on Chinese-stylepancakes or steamed buns. It complements chickenand pork especially well. Some people combine thehoisin sauce with their chili oil to give it an extra kick.Beware, though, because there may already be chilipaste in the hoisin sauce.
Hot mustard, as the name suggests, is hot, eventhough it is just made with dry mustard, water, andsometimes rice wine. It's another thick, spicy saucethat goes really well with any food that has beendeep-fried.One particularly goodcombination is to dip adeep-fried shrimp dishinto hot mustard. Thespiciness is simple andbrings out a lot of flavorin shrimp. In general,any deep-fried appetizerat most Hong Kongrestaurants will do wellwhen dipped into a goodhot mustard sauce.
Plum sauce is made with plum jam, vinegar, andspices. Some Westerners might recognize this assimilar to "duck sauce," but this sauce is the realdeal- thick and full of flavor.
Just like the hotmustard, it goes wellwith deep-friedappetizers, but plumsauce is sweet, notspicy. It's a perfectcompanion to pork.Combination disheslike pork stir-fryreally benefit fromsome plum sauce.
The ubiquitous soy sauce, along with chilioil and vinegar, is part of the holy trinityof dim sum sauces, and will appearalongside the best dim sum in Hong Kong.Soy sauce can go it alone, or it mightcontain ginger or garlic. Soy sauce is light,yet salty, so it really brings out the moresubtle meats like chicken.
Sweet and sour saucecombines vinegar andsugar, occasionally withother ingredients, for apleasant topping. Itworks best on chicken,fish, and pork, alongwith anything that wasfried in a batter.
Szechuan salt and pepper isa dry rub for fried chickenand other fried foods. It usesspecial Szechuanpeppercorns to add loads offlavor. Try it in combinationwith sauces!
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