@aetataureate@catsalad@jovikowi yeah just look for ‘naturally brewed or naturally fermented’ on the label. And no ‘hydrolyzed soy’. My standard one is Lee Kum Kee ‘premium’ or ‘first draw’ light soy sauce but lots of Japanese ones are good too.
@catsalad@jovikowi@skinnylatte here are two packets and two bottles that say different versions of naturally/traditionally brewed! They say it proudly and directly which helps a lot
@catsalad@jovikowi@skinnylatte oh I'm not sure if that means stuff here in the u.s. or Europe is good outside of the Really good stuff you'll find at a specialty market. But that's the definitive step up from low sodium stuff, which I think is definitionally all the fake kind.
@jovikowi@catsalad@skinnylatte soy sauce is naturally brewed, you can look at cool videos about it on YouTube. The fake stuff is just brown salt water with highly savory processed soy added. The same kind of stuff they use to amp MSG/umami without having to label it. (MSG stuff is fine, but natural soy sauce does not need anything added.)
@kkeller@halla Pearl River is pretty good for cooking but it’s not my ‘I wanna drink it neat’ soy sauce (I feel that way about some other brands). I prefer Lee Kum Kee myself but it’s just a geographical preference.
@halla@skinnylatte is Pearl River bad? It's what we usually buy here, and what my Chinese mother-in-law recommended (though perhaps she couldn't get any better where they lived?).
@skinnylatte But where can you get good soy sauce... I have Pearl River brand ew sauce, kikkoman not very good sauce and something brewed locally, in Rotterdam of all places, but I think even the proprietors of the local Asian shops use Pearl River.
When it comes to laojiu, the shops only have salted, sweetened stuff, and I cannot get anything that's really worth cooking with, let alone drinking.
The other thing to note is that shoyu and "soy sauce" are supposed to be different. Shoyu has a lighter flavor, is gluten free, and is meant for use after cooking, while what most Americans know as soy sauce has wheat added, and is heavier, so it holds up better under high heat.
@jovikowi@catsalad generally I would not buy soy sauce from a store that isn’t a Asian grocer. Same in U.S. and in Europe. In lots of places you can get proper soy sauce but only at Asian stores. Even the Safeway / Whole Foods stuff, is kind of basic if they have it at all. I want like a whole range of good soy sauce. My rule of thumb is if it’s in the ‘ethnic aisle’, it’s not for me. More so if it has a weird dragon font
@scunneen there are different Kikkomans. Most of them are better than the average one, the blue and white made in Japan one is very good, there is a lower quality export version made elsewhere i am ambivalent about but would still pick over no soy sauce d