Hoisin Sauces
Hoisin sauces are not all alike. I usually buy the Lee Kum Kee version because it’s easily accessible to me in Flushing. But we’re not in Flushing anymore. So I decided to make lettuce wraps tonight (which is really scary since now they’re saying it’s the lettuce that gave people E.coli at Taco Bell), but needed hoisin sauce to spread in the lettuce with the filling.
I went to Whole Foods thinking I’d be able to find the Asian brand I always get, not the case. The only one they had was the 365 Organic version and it is not the same! There is something very not Asian tasting in it, I’m not sure what it is, maybe it’s the molasses or the organe juice concentrate or the tamarind, but something else, it just wasn’t right. I put it in a dish and Henry’s first remark was, “What is this crap?” and I even remember calling Nora as I was buying and telling her I hope it wasn’t a mistake buying it. So when you’re shopping for hoisin sauces in American supermarkets, you have to get the Asian versions, not the American ones. All hoisin sauces are not created equally.