This can get confusing. The one I want to introduce is a sweet, thick, very dark soy sauce that has the viscosity of honey or molasses. You can see how thick and dark it looks in the featured photo.
We love this as a condiment or dipping sauce. It is sweet and not as salty as regular soy sauce. When added this sticky sauce will make your food black.
I’m posting this on my blog because it’s perfect as a dipping sauce for Ngoh Hiang, a meaty fried roll as shown in the featured photo. You can use it for spring rolls as well. For recipe on Ngoh Hiang, click here.
In Singapore, we also add this sauce to the ginger and chili sauces in our Hainan Chicken Rice. The sauce is also added to Char Kway Teow (fried flat rice noodles) giving it a dark appearance and a slightly sweet flavor. The Thais use something like this for their Pad See Ew, which is like our Char Kway Teow.
My favorite is the Tiger Brand bottle above, a popular brand in Singapore, but hard to find in the U.S. It’s labelled as Dark Soya Sauce, which makes it confusing because dark soy sauce typically means aged soy sauce, i.e. regular soy sauce that has been fermented longer.
Let me show you the difference. The two dark soy sauces are different. Liquid, aged, dark soy sauce is not sweet at all and dipping something into it will just make it salty and stronger in soy sauce flavor. It is used more in seasoning. Both may be used in braising.
Have a look at the two different “dark soy sauces”. The left saucer is the sweet version for dipping. The one on the right is the aged soy sauce.
I tipped it a little to show how thick and viscous the sweet version is. The stains left behind are quite different.
To tell the difference between the two types of dark soy sauce, tip the bottle sideways. The sweeter Dark Soya Sauce for dipping flows to the side like honey to the side. The dark soy sauce, which is more for seasoning, flows like liquid.
I keep mine refrigerated. The sauce gets so sticky the cap is hard to open. And the sauce is hard to pour out. Warm the whole bottle under running hot tap water to make it flow more easily.
There doesn’t seem to be any standard names for the different and wide variety of soy sauces. The sauce I have in mind may be difficult to find at a Chinese grocery store. They are sometimes sold as Sweet Dark Sauce. Sometimes as Sweet Soy Sauce, Black Soy Sauce, Double Black Soy Sauce, Thick Soy Sauce and Kecap Manis. Full disclosure–I haven’t tried any of these two photographed below.
This one on left I have tried. It’s from Thailand which I’ve found here in the Asian supermarkets. It is called Black Soy Sauce. It’s a good dipping sauce and a good substitute for my favorite brand.
I hope I haven’t made this more confusing. Good luck.
