Most often cooked with
Spring onion
Ginger
Sugar
Garlic
Sesame oil
Stock
Chilli oil
CornflourRecipes with soy sauce
Beef Chow Mein
Beef coated in cornflour and seared in batches in a pan hot enough to smoke, with the sauce going in only at the very end.
Brown Stew Fish
Fried whole fish simmered briefly in a dark sweet-savoury gravy built on browning, onion and thyme, and served with the sauce spooned over.
Chicken Congee
Rice simmered in eight times its weight of stock until the grains collapse, into a savoury porridge finished in the bowl.
Dan Dan Noodles
Noodles over a pool of chilli oil, sesame paste and vinegar, topped with crisp fried pork and preserved vegetable.
Egg Fried Rice
Yesterday's rice broken up cold and fried hard in a wide pan, so the grains stay separate and toast instead of steaming to paste.
Hot and Sour Soup
A brothy Sichuan-style soup thickened with a cornflour slurry and finished with vinegar and beaten egg off the heat, so both stay sharp.
Jerk Chicken
Chicken marinated overnight in scotch bonnet, allspice and thyme, then cooked slowly over smoke until the skin is lacquered almost black.
Kung Pao Chicken
Diced chicken stir-fried fast with dried chillies and peanuts in a sauce that is sour, sweet and salty in that order.
Mapo Tofu
Silken tofu in a fierce red sauce of fermented bean paste and Sichuan pepper, with just enough pork to season it.
Michelada
Cold lager with lime, hot sauce and a salted rim — savoury, sour and far more refreshing in heat than it sounds.
Red-Braised Pork Belly
Pork belly caramelised in sugar and braised in soy and wine until the fat turns to jelly and the sauce to lacquer.
Shoyu Ramen with Chashu Pork
A soy-based broth that tastes long-cooked because it is. The pork rolls the night before, which is most of the work and none of the effort.
Silky Miso Mushroom Ramen
A shiitake and kombu broth that starts with a half-hour soak, finished with white miso and topped with seven-minute eggs.
Smashed Cucumber Salad
Cucumbers smashed rather than sliced so the torn faces grip a soy, vinegar and sesame dressing instead of shedding it.
Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Spring Onion
A whole fish steamed plain, dressed with soy, and finished by pouring smoking oil over raw ginger and spring onion.