Grilling on the Rim : Shopping for Sauce
Buying marinades and spices for Asian barbecue can be an overwhelming and bewildering experience: There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of products on the market. Such profusion began long before there were supermarkets and contemporary packaging, however.
It began with hawkers in open market stalls serving travelers or other people who had no cooking facilities. Eventually, lured by the enticing aromas of grilling meat, everyone came to patronize the stalls. As competition grew and vendors spread to other parts of town, they began to distinguish their wares by perfecting their own distinctive marinade flavors.
Street-side barbecue is even now very much a part of urban Asian life. In Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Japan (where sate is called yakitori), vendors still set up their braziers on street corners and in train and bus stations.
But plenty of grilling is done at home too, and in the last decade or so, with the arrival of supermarkets in Asia, food manufacturers have come up with all sorts of prepared marinades and sauces. There is everything from instant Singaporean-style spicy spareribs mix to pear-flavored Korean marinade. Competition among most brands is just as fierce as it was between those vendors in the old-time markets.
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A staggering number of Asian barbecue condiments are imported into the United States. American companies--in addition to American-based branches of Asian companies--are turning out barbecue products. Ebara, a Japanese sauce maker, imports about 10 meat marinades and teriyaki-style sauces to sell largely through Japanese markets. U.S. Ebara also produces a local line distributed to most major supermarkets. “The sauces have slightly different flavor profiles,” says Michael Frank of Ebara, “and, of course, the labels are all in English.”
Some locally made sauces and marinades such as Noh of Hawaii’s Chinese-style char siu and Korean-style kalbi are geared to well-established Asian-American populations. Others, such as Lawry’s Teriyaki Sauce and Tommy Tang’s Sate Marinade and Sate Sauce, are geared to non-Asian consumers. “People don’t use our sauces strictly for Thai dishes,” says Gary Arabia of Tommy Tang’s. “They can marinate a whole chicken with the sate marinade or use the peanut-based sauce for any kind of salad.”
For those shopping somewhat randomly in Asian and/or mainstream stores, the choices can be overwhelming.
For example, Shun Fat Market, on Atlantic Boulevard in Monterey Park, has one of the widest pan-Asian selections in Southern California. Bypassing the familiar brands--Kikkoman Teriyaki Glaze and Dynasty Chinese Barbecue Sauce--in favor of more exotic sauces, Shun Fat offers a vegetarian barbecue sauce produced by AGV products of Taiwan, also XO brand and Kimlan brand satay pastes, both Taiwanese-produced peanut sauces spiked with chiles, ground dry shrimp and garlic. In the same aisle are three brands of Thai sweet-hot chile sauce to accompany Thai barbecued chicken. Close to these is Hai Pao Wang brand barbecue sauce from Taiwan. Said to be the original authentic style of Cantonese barbecue sauce, the paste-like mixture contains dried shrimp and fish, garlic, shallots and chile.
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Near the Vietnamese soup seasonings--but before you get to the flour mixtures--are several American-Vietnamese barbecue seasoning products, including Golden Bell Brand’s Special Barbecue Spices (with directions in English) and King Sing’s B.B.Q Beef and Shrimp Mix.
At the Indonesian-Malay section you’ll find the nicely packaged Kokita line of sauces. These Indonesian imports include bumbu sate , a marinade made primarily from shallots, garlic and soy sauce. Its accompaniment, saos sate (satay dipping sauce), is a thick, peanut-based mixture spiked with chile. There you’ll also find Filipino barbecue marinades and seasonings.
Char siu , the red Chinese barbecued pork, is popular all over Asia, so Shun Fat carries brands of char siu seasoning to suit people from many countries. In the dry seasonings aisle you’ll find Lobo brand powdered char siu seasoning mix from Thailand. Sun-Bird brand dry Chinese barbecue seasoning mix made in Torrance seems to be preferred by Japanese-Americans, Noh brand char siu seasoning by Filipinos and Hawaiians. With the wet sauces is another selection of char siu in jars. Especially good is Lee Kum Kee brand, made in Hong Kong.
At the Hughes market across the street, the selection is also substantial. But as you might imagine, there are more American-produced items such as S&W; Light Teriyaki Sauce, Trader Vic’s Chinese-Style Teriyaki Sauce and Rice Road’s Teriyaki Basting Sauce.
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There are also plenty of imported Asian brands, especially in the Chinese and Japanese food section, including Miyako Brand Teri Sauce, Nippon Meat Packers Oriental Style Barbecue Sauce, Yeo’s Singapore Spicy Spareribs Marinade Mix (for braising or barbecue) and Kimlan Chinese Barbecue Sauce imported from Taiwan.
At Market World in Koreatown, most barbecue marinades (aside from the Kraft Thick and Spicy and Marie Callender’s Bold) are imported from Korea. Although the ingredients are listed in English, most have directions in Hangul. Hence they can be a bit of a gamble. The bulkogi marinade imported by Seoul Shik Poom Inc., which lists pear as an ingredient, has a complex and fruity flavor. Some other brands taste like a straight mixture of soy sauce and sugar.
The Ralphs market at Vermont Avenue and 3rd Street in Los Angeles has--in addition to a mainstream barbecue sauce section that offers Janet’s Original Jerk Marinade Sauce and Stubbs Legendary Moppin’ Sauce from Austin Texas--an international aisle with dozens of domestic and imported Asian seasonings and sauces. The teriyaki sauces alone include brands by Diamond of Honolulu Rice Road, Ebara, Sun-Bird, Kikkoman, Aloha Chef, Kona Coast, Noh of Hawaii, Nippon Meat Packers of Osaka and several others. They also stock Kona Coast Sweet and Sour Barbecue Sauce and Lobo Brand char siu seasoning from Thailand among their many non-teriyaki Asian barbecue products.
At Kawa and Naga, two nearby Filipino markets, sauces are also fairly international. Look for Mama’s Best and Mama Sita’s barbecue marinade and seasonings in bottles and dry mixes. These imports are for Filipino-style sate babi . Adopted from Indonesia, sate is as familiar to any Filipino as pizza is to an American. Dry marinades are rubbed directly into thinly sliced beef before it is grilled or baked. Instructions on all of these products suggest trying them on chicken too. Mama Sita’s also makes a marinade for tocino , the Filipino-style “bacon.”
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In Little Tokyo West on Sawtelle Boulevard, Safe & Save market has the most diverse selection, including small square bottles of kabayaki no tare for barbecued eel. At Nijiya market, the Angelo Piero marinade and salad dressing, an East-West style product imported from Japan, comes in ume (plum), miso and original flavors.
Both stores carry Ohgon no Aji Tare , Ebara’s imported up-market marinade. This is a delicious blend of soy sauce, fruit juices, wine and other seasonings that comes in mild, medium, hot and Korean style.
* SHun Fat Supermarket, 421 N. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, (818) 308-3998; Pan-Asian selection.
* T and T Market (in Diamond Square), 8150 E. Garvey Ave., Rosemead, (818) 573-3699; Pan-Asian selection.
* Little Saigon Supermarket, 9822 Bolsa Ave., Westminster, (714) 531-7272; Pan-Asian selection.
* Hughes No. 15, 330 N. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, (818) 289-0261; Pan-Asian selection.
* Market World (Hannam Chain), 2740 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 382-2922; Korean supermarket.
* Ralphs, 3456 West 3rd Street (corner of Vermont Avenue), Los Angeles, (213) 480-1421; Pan-Asian selection.
* Kawa, 142 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 383-0907; Filipino market.
* Naga Food Market, 227 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 386-8470; Filipino market.
* Safe & Save, 2030 Sawtelle Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 479-3810; Japanese market.
* Nijiya Market, 2130 Sawtelle Blvd., No. 105, West Los Angeles, (310) 575-3300; Japanese market.