A large clay basin holds dark brown soy sauce with a wooden ladle on its rim, three blue-and-white bowls hold soybean paste, wheat paste and sesame paste, soybeans and wheat ears lie on the table, and lumps of paste dry on a bamboo tray.
Sauces and pastes
Introduction
Soy sauce, bean and flour pastes, sesame paste and fish sauce.
Sauces and pastes cover soy sauce, the bean and flour pastes fermented from soybeans or wheat flour, sesame paste, and fish sauce and similar sauces. Soy sauce is mostly made from soybeans and wheat mixed with a seed koji of Aspergillus; the ripened mash is pressed for its juice, then filtered and sterilised, and it comes as light, dark and other kinds. Fish sauce is a liquid made from small fish or shrimp that are salted, fermented and boiled. Pastes of chili and broad beans belong to Chili Bean Pastes, fermented tofu to Fermented Curd and Douchi, and salt and sugar to Oils, Salt, Sugar and Honey.