Soy Sauce

I was lucky enough to be able to bring back 2 bottles of really good soy sauce from Malaysia. My aunt married into a family whose business is making soy sauce for restaurants. I grew up using their soy sauces and had managed to convince my aunt to get me some.



On the left is regular soy sauce (sang chow in Cantonese). On the right is thick soy sauce.

The ingredients as listed on the bottles are soy beans, salt, sugar, flour (I think it's wheat flour), and caramel coloring. No alcohol and other preservatives, which is why it is sitting in my refrigerator right now.


Sorry for the blurry pics

The elusive umami is definitely present in the light soy sauce. It is not as salty as the stuff we get in the grocery store and has a slighty sweet note.



The thick soy sauce has a slight bitter taste in the beginning and a slight sweetness after.

I handcarried these 2 bottles from Malaysia -> Singapore -> Hong Kong -> Chicago. My most precious cargo indeed...

If there is an Chinese LTHForum dinner coming up, I will bring some along so that everyone can have a taste.

Out of curiosity what's the "expiration date" for these jealous-making refrigerated soy sauces?

Since I weened myself off Kikkoman, etc a few years ago and discovered Pearl River Bridge I've been paying close attention to storage and sell-by dates.