Noodles and Rice

Your Favorite Asian Dipping Sauces?

by Stef on September 21st, 2006

Marketmanila recently posted about his favorite dipping sauces and asked his readers to post their own. The discussion is particularly interesting to me because just the day before Ji Young at the Book of Rai forum posted about Mongolia-Manchuria-Korea-Japan food connections and in the discussion, Robyn of EatingAsia mentions that vinegar and garlic is a typical dipping sauce in NE China. Surprising to me as I never thought of this specific combination as being Chinese, though I am familiar with other Chinese dipping sauces that contain both vinegar and garlic — and *my* favorite jiaozi sauce is the one made with sesame oil-garlic-chili oil-soy sauce-vinegar. Something new I learned that day.

Quoting Robyn:

And garlic - pronounced use of garlic and consumption of raw garlic. Favorite dipping sauce for jiaozi in NE China is vinegar with lots of chopped fresh garlic.

So of course we’ve got the Vietnamese nuoc cham and the Thai peanut dipping sauce, etc. but that’s only the beginning. To many Asians, the food spread on the table is never complete without those tiny bowls containing mixtures that pack a flavorful punch. To this end, expect in the next few days a coverage of different Asian sauces and suggestions for using them. What’s *your* favorite?

Related Stories

Where to Find Asian Food in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Ingredient Spotlight: Nuoc Mam
Brainstorming: Asian Food Gift Ideas
Seed Companies, for your Asian Garden needs
Asian Cookbook Review: Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Alford and Duguid

POSTED IN: Sauces and Dips