The Soy Sauce Mistake You Need To Stop Making When Eating Chinese Food

As a Chinese person and cookbook author, I often wish people would stop making this one mistake when dining in a Chinese restaurant. And that mistake is overusing soy sauce. I've seen folks drizzle a sinful amount of soy sauce over everything from noodles to fried rice or congee to beef and broccoli. I feel, strongly, that soy sauce should be used as a dipping sauce in Chinese restaurants, much like you use it in a Japanese restaurant when enjoying sushi and gyoza.

The reason I say this is because Chinese food often already comes seasoned beautifully. Flavors are also well balanced. We often marinate our proteins with soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, MSG, and other ingredients essential to Chinese cooking. Additionally, some Chinese food is meant to be more qīngdàn (or 清淡 in Mandarin), meaning lightly flavored. That includes food like congee (or rice porridge), white rice, and clear soups.

In essence, you basically do not want your Chinese food swimming in soy sauce whenever you dine out. Try that shrimp dumpling, straight out of the steamer basket, without sullying its flavors. Then, if it doesn't feel salty enough for your palate, add some soy sauce to a sauce dish to dip the dumpling into.

Now, let's say you've poured too much soy sauce in your Chinese food. It's too salty now, so what can you do in this case? For one, next time, be sure to be less heavy handed when pouring soy sauce directly into the dish. Trust the chef has done their work in properly seasoning the food for you. 

But if the mistake has already been made, here are ways you can temper the saltiness. You can ask your server for a bowl of plain white rice to pair the dish with, if it's an entrée like beef and broccoli. The purpose of white rice isn't just to bulk up the meal. It is a vessel or neutral base that helps balance your meals. The rice soaks up sauce and dilutes the salt's intensity. 

Another thing you can do is add more sauce. This could be a drizzle of chili crisp, which will add heat and spice to cover the saltiness. A bit of acidity helps too, so ask for red or black vinegar. Finally, you can also ask for a sweet soy sauce. It may be a good idea to research popular soy sauce brands to see which ones are sweeter and best for drizzling. I love bringing a small bottle of Heydoh's Silky soy sauce and a mini shaker bottle of MSG with me whenever I dine out, but that's usually when I eat at Western restaurants.