Let's Talk Soy Sauce

If you and I shared a similar childhood you probably recall having some primary school education about health and nutrition, an the infamous "food pyramid".

Here's why the food pyramid is bullshit: it's missing the most critical food group of them all - sauce. I'm all about sauce - marinara sauce, hot sauce, soy sauce, you name it. This following artist's rendition dramatically illustrates my feelings about hot sauce, Sriracha in particular.

Tonight's topic however is soy sauce. You may be thinking that there are a number of different brands of soy sauce available on the market, and that I am going to debate the pros and cons of each. Wrong. There is only one brand of legit soy sauce on the market: Kikkoman. If you're a La Choy kinda person, I suggest you try this amazing computer trick right now: Alt+F4.

The brew-masters at Kikkoman do have a variety of flavors with which to dazzle you (not ending on a preposition here, suckas). Let us highlight two of them - the general purpose soy sauce and their sushi / sashimi blend.

According to Kikkoman:

Made from our naturally brewed soy sauce, Sushi & Sashimi Soy Sauce is sweeter and milder than original Kikkoman Soy Sauce. The balance of sweetness and saltiness, as well as a special blend of natural ingredients, pairs well with wasabi (Japanese horseradish paste) and heightens the flavor of sushi and sashimi, as well as a variety of other foods, such as pot stickers, grilled meat and chicken.

I did a quick back-to-back taste test. Relative to the control (all-purpose "normal" soy sauce), the sushi & sashimi blend definitely does have a bit less of an edge to it, and while perhaps not that much more mild does have a sweeter and less aggressive taste to it. The difference is subtle, but it really is very good - and not just for sushi. I've used it for just about everything and it is quite good.

Try it out. In Ohio I had seen it briefly in Giant Eagle, though seemingly it disappeared off the shelves within the year before I moved out of there. In North Carolina it is definitely available at Harris Teeter, but not at Lowe's Foods.