Everybody loves their food, and I'm pretty sure you guys have your own "secret sauce" when it comes to pairing the right food with the right condiment. It could be teriyaki sauce or parsley sprinkles. In your opinion, which condiment is under-mentioned / under-rated and could use more love?
I'm dedicating this post to my BCE - Best Condiments Ever. Of course, it's gonna be quite biased because I grew up with Chinese food! My favourites are:-
- XO sauce
- Fried shallots
- Tiny red dates
XO sauce
Even the name resembles how people look like when XO enters their mouth. It goes pretty well with everything I get to eat around South East Asia. For best effect, pair the XO with steamed rice and noodles, only if you're up for some hot sauce. It's made of fried shrimp, scallops, shallots, garlic, chilli, and oil - here's how to prepare them. Getting the pre-made ones are fine too, if not better: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lee-Kum-Kee-Sauce-220/dp/B00FZH3KHS
Fried shallots
Its Caramelised Crunchiness is a pleasure on the palate. Avoid those pre-fried shallots you find in supermarkets. Go for freshly fried ones instead. Great for just about anything with rice and noodle, soupy or not. But sometimes I tend to add too much of this that it no longer becomes a condiment. One example is with tofu. Easy preparation: get a block of tofu, add soy sauce, and finally sprinkle loads of these fried shallots. The tofu can be cold or steamed - check out this link. Another great pairing is with non-dairy congee or some would call, porridge.
Tiny red dates
These berries-but-not-berries when torn apart, explode with seeds that are subtly sweet. They're heavenly and light on the tongue. Best served with soupy food, and indeed, it's one of the most common ingredients found in Chinese "clear" soups. I just think nobody talks about them often enough. Never found any instances of anyone being impressed by these wrinkly sacks of nature. Here's a great soup dish that uses red dates: http://www.justasdelish.com/lotus-root-soup/
Juniper berries are a cool addition to my meat dishes. Especially reindeer.
Never tried exotic meat before (reindeer is considered one here..), but I think I've eaten some western food with berries, not so sure about juniper berries though. Berries do go a long way with most kinds of food huh :)
They ar not sweet like berries usually are. More peppery and savory. Perfect for game meats.
Will seek out some :) Lol we're talking about berries round here?
Smoked paprika and smoked salt.
Great! I'd love that :)
I have to go with pumpkin seeds, great taste and good for the prostate. I've been away from steemit for a time so it is good to read you again.
Likewise!.. I seem to avoid pumpkin seeds for no good reason. Will grab that on my next grocery trip :)
they are great just to eat as a snack, get raw ones not roasted
Love your 3 BCE's. Having the great opportunity of living in Korea for a year, Kimchi is a must on my plate...
It's a pretty fun process to making it yourself too ^^.. just plenty of effort and time required to do so
I've recently discovered teriyaki sauce and ginger syrup! I use them for my omelette and for my wok dish. Also nice to use to marinate salmon or chicken :-)
Oh ginger syrup is great. I guess it'll go well just with boiled water?
Hmm I've not tried it with boiled water yet. I might try later!
It also works well to make sweet onions... I should do that again soon actually!
XO sauce is great for many things even the Chinese fried carrot cake.
Nice.. been a long time since i had that!
Congratulations for the excellent choice this can be seen at a glance that is delicious and healthy, thank you very much sir @kevinwong for sharing this so delicious, now I fancy one
Haha only the last one is healthy! The others are oily.. but oily usually means tasty xD
An awesome selection. I do like the tame XO sauce we get here so can imagine a half decent one would be even more awesome! Will check out the Amazon one!
That Amazon one is quite premium, but I think it's the best I've tried anywhere. But of course homemade XOs are usually better :D
I am suspecting a home made one might be on the cards!!! :0D
Fried shallots sounds amazing.
You've never had it??
Nope, I mean I've had onion rings, but not fried shallots.
Goes well with fried rice ;)
I think its not called tiny red dates ! is that Goji berry !? thanks @kevinwong for the article , keep it up !!
You're right, i just found out about it!
Good post, I also like onions when eating food, but unfortunately the onions can make us body odor.
Ha ha
Thanks for sharing @kevinwong
Really? I didn't know about that. I eat plenty of onions... lol
Ha ha, you can feel it yourself, if you eat a lot of onions when you sweat must bauk your body really bad, should always provide deodorant. LOL
I think i shall try that XO sauce, we like it spicy here ;)
What spicy stuff are you into over there? :)
Well, I think we view spice, or 'pepper' differently. Basically just about every cooked meal can be eaten with pepper, once it's hot and tasty enough. We don't really have pepper dishes, everything can have pepper xD
Tiny red dates ...dates explain more please
Oh i saw some websites calling them berries.. but we use the word "dates" for this particular tiny red berry somehow..
Oh thanks im from middle east and ,dates just confused me.
Chinese herbs and spices are great.
never had any of these but I am not tempted to try them
Can't say for the last one, but the first two!
good one, thanks
Looks so Yummie-ful!
Nice!
Its caramelized crunchiness is great, I agree. For the sake I do not really love the condiments....
I love spices and use them every day! Especially turmeric, red chilli and ginger! Thank you for your opinion!
Grind dried anchovies and dried mushrooms as umami bombs for cooking