Miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and kōji and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spreads, pickling vegetables, fish, or meats, and mixing with dashi soup stock to serve as miso soup, a Japanese culinary staple. Miso is high in protein and rich in vitamins and minerals, and it played an important nutritional role in feudal Japan. Miso is still widely used in both traditional and modern cooking in Japan and has been gaining worldwide interest.
Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some garum-related fish sauces have been used in the West since the Roman times.
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsa, meaning salted. Possibly the oldest recorded European sauce is garum, the fish sauce used by the Ancient Romans, while doubanjiang, the Chinese soy bean paste is mentioned in Rites of Zhou in the 3rd century BC.
Soy sauce is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds. It is recognized for its pronounced umami taste.
Umami, or savoriness, is one of the five basic tastes. It has been described as savory and is characteristic of broths and cooked meats.
Gravy is a sauce often made from the juices of meats that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with corn starch or other thickeners for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt or gravy browning or ready-made cubes. Powders can be used as a substitute for natural meat or vegetable extracts. Canned and instant gravies are also available. Gravy is commonly served with roasts, meatloaf, rice, noodles, chips (fries), mashed potatoes, or biscuits.
Sweet and sour is a generic term that encompasses many styles of sauce, cuisine, and cooking methods. It is commonly used in East Asia and Southeast Asia and has been used in England since the Middle Ages. Sweet and sour sauce remains popular in Asian and Western cuisines.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the preparation of food:
Glutamate flavoring is the generic name for flavor-enhancing compounds based on glutamic acid and its salts (glutamates). These compounds provide an umami (savory) taste to food.
Cap cai, sometimes spelled cap cay, is the Hokkien-derived term for a popular Chinese Indonesian and Peranakan stir-fried vegetable dish that originates from Fujian cuisine.
Manchurian is a class of Indian Chinese dish made by roughly chopping and deep-frying ingredients such as chicken, cauliflower (gobi), prawns, fish, mutton, and paneer, and then sautéeing them in a sauce flavored with soy sauce. Manchurian is the result of the adaptation of Chinese cooking and seasoning techniques to suit Indian tastes. It has become a staple of Indian Chinese cuisine.
Crab in oyster sauce or oyster sauce crab is a Chinese seafood dish of crab served in savoury oyster sauce. It is a popular dish in Asia, that can be found from China, Indonesia, Singapore to the Philippines.
Hot and sour soup is a popular example of Sichuan cuisine. Similar versions are found in Henan province, near Beijing, and in Henan cuisine itself, where it may also be known as hulatang or "pepper hot soup" (胡辣汤). Also popular in Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan and the United States, it is a flexible soup which allows ingredients to be substituted or added depending on availability. For example, the American-Chinese version can be thicker as it commonly includes corn starch, whilst in Japan, sake is often added.
Ifumi is an Indonesian crispy deep fried thick noodle dish, popular in Maritime Southeast Asia, served in a thick savoury sauce with pieces of meat or seafood and vegetables. The dishes are to be served hot while the noodles are still crisp until the noodles are softened by the sauce and are ready to be eaten. The dish is one of the most popular noodle dishes in Chinese Indonesian cuisine. The type of noodle being used in this dish is the thick yi mein noodle, hence the origin of its name. It is quite similar to mie kering noodles from Makassar.
Phat Kaphrao, also spelled pad krapow, pad kaprao, or pad gaprao, is one of the most popular Thai dishes in Thailand. Known colloquially as "The Desperate Menu", this dish has garnered a reputation for its appetising appearance and flavour.
Corn sauce or fermented corn sauce is produced by fermentation using corn starch as the primary substrate. It is used as a food condiment and ingredient, both in paste and in powder form. Corn sauce, like soy sauce, has a characteristic savory taste. It is used to flavor dishes including soups, broths, and gravies.
