On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 22:06:07 +0000 (UTC), Steve Pope wrote:

> aem > wrote:
>
>>Kimlan is a very large Taiwanese food products company, claiming the
>>biggest soy sauce sales among Taiwan brands. Pearl River Bridge is a
>>very large company in Guangdong, which may be the biggest soy sauce
>>seller from China. Kikkoman has the equivalent position in Japan.
>>They all make "genuine" stuff, naturally fermented, as few additives
>>as possible, and they all taste good to a lot of people. You can find
>>all three in both the asian markets and the supermarkets here in
>>SoCal. Which you like best is up to your taste. Kikkoman has a lower-
>>sodium soy sauce that tastes, as far as I can tell, just like the
>>regular product. I don't know whether the others offer a lower sodium
>>version. I've been stuck on Pearl River Bridge for quite a while now
>>but I've used both the others in the past and may again in the
>>future. -aem
>
> Does anybody here brew their own soy sauce, or ferment their
> own black bean sauce, or concoct their own oyster sauce from
> oysters?
>
> Just curious. It seems to me it's relatively difficult
> to avoid bottled ingredients in Chinese food preparation,
> relative to many other types of cuisines.
>
> Steve

i think when people here are talking about 'bottled' sauces, they're
talking about 'stir-fry sauce' or 'teriaki marinade' and the like, not the
constituent ingredients thereof. i suppose you could make your own
worcestershire, but nobody in their right mind would do so.

your pal,
blake