On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:54:08 GMT, Phred wrote:

> In article >, brooklyn1 > wrote:
>>Becca > wrote:
>>>Cheryl wrote:
>>>> I've never made it, but I know it's one of those things where you can
>>>> use up stuff in the fridge...
> [snip]
>>>Leftover rice, bean sprouts, a scrambled egg, lots of chopped green
>>>onion, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce & oyster sauce. Whoever started
>>>putting peas & carrots in fried rice was just plain wrong, IMO.
>>
>>Concur... no peas n' carrots. I add dice bok choy (white part), maybe
>>some water chestnuts, and garnish with cashews. Of course the
>>ultimate is a mound of poke fly lice heaped with a bucketful of shrimp
>>n' lobster sauce. Lobster sauce is very easy to make and contains no
>>lobster.
>
> Shel's recipe quoted below is clearly not one of those trendy "Four
> Ingredients" meals. :-)
>
> But my real reason for responding concerns soy sauce. A local
> supermarket has suddenly started stocking both "dark" and "light" soy
> sauce (previously we just had plain "soy sauce"). Wot gives? What
> role does each type preferably play as a cooking ingredient? And is
> the distinction all that important anyway?
>

assuming you're not talking about 'lite' soy, or reduced sodium, light soy
has a thinner consistency. dark is a little thicker and usually has some
molasses added. it's not as salty. (we're talking about chinese soy
here.)

wikipedia actually has a pretty good run-down of the many, many varieties
of soy sauce out the

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_sauce>

this section covers what i think you're talking about:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_sauce#Chinese_soy_sauce>

sometimes you will see these referred to as 'thin' and 'thick' soys.

(there's a page out there somewhere similar to Gernot Katzer's spice page
that deals with asian ingredients, but i've lost the bookmark. does that
sound familiar to anyone?)

your pal,
blake