# Copycat Inquiry - Sauce - Koi Restaurant



## NoraC (Feb 9, 2011)

My grandsons adore the spicy fried rice at the Koi Hibachi Restaurant chain. but for the life of me I cannot get the sauce that the restaurant adds right.  I am pretty sure from the look and the taste that it is one of the bean sauces, but there are a bunch o' oriental bean sauces. I keep guessing wrong. Does anybody know this dish and have a hint about the magic ingredient? The basic fried rice is easy, but the sauce eludes me. Thanks!


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## Damien (Feb 12, 2011)

Can you describe the sauce? Is it creamy? nutty? sweet? citrusy? oily? Spicy? what color?, thin like soy sauce or thick like sweet and sour?

-Damien


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## NoraC (Feb 13, 2011)

Damien said:


> Can you describe the sauce? Is it creamy? nutty? sweet? citrusy? oily? Spicy? what color?, thin like soy sauce or thick like sweet and sour?
> 
> -Damien


The sauce is an ingredient in a dish, so I have not been able to get a taste of it separately.  That said, it is a medium brown, appears to be about the consistency of ketchup (it is squeezed from a bottle onto fried rice, so the consistency could be off a little), and adds a nice rounded heat and slightly red/brown color to the rice when added at a rate of about - eyeballing - a teaspoon per half cup of rice.

The grandboys asked me to try so I tell them how to make it.  Initially, I was sure that it was one of the eleventy dozen oriental bean sauces, but I am not arriving at enough spice without adding way too much of the sauce. Mixing the obvious suspects (like rooster sauce, chilies in oil etc) into a couple of brown bean pastes doesn't give the right heat. Szechuan peppercorns are not involved. 

Koi is not a "fine dining" experience; it is good solid hibachi cooking, so the answer is not going to be too exotic, but it is eluding me.

All help appreciated!


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## Zhizara (Feb 13, 2011)

Did you ask them at the restaurant, Nora?


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## NoraC (Feb 13, 2011)

Zhizara said:


> Did you ask them at the restaurant, Nora?


Oh yes, ! Got the "sekert sauce, velly good" response that they affect there, though the same folks ordering at Zaxby's sound like they ARE from around here.


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## Damien (Feb 13, 2011)

Is there any chance that it may not be a bean sauce at all but maybe something like a Tonkatsu sauce blended with Sriracha or maybe a different kind of sauce?

-Damien


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## NoraC (Feb 13, 2011)

Damien, I hadn't thought about tonkatsu; you may be right.   The heat isn't from sriracha - it is a more rounded, mellow heat, but I will try working from a tonkatsu base.  Good idea!  Thanks.


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## Damien (Feb 13, 2011)

A couple other options to consider may be Okonomiyaki or Yakisoba sauce... Hope it helps!

-Damien


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## Andy M. (Feb 13, 2011)

Aside from the heat, how does it compare to traditional Chinese fried rice?  Sweeter?  More tart?


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## NoraC (Feb 13, 2011)

Andy,sweeter, but hot.  I am sure the sauce isn't exotic, just not one I can spot.

Damien, it isn't yakisoba, which I know well, but I am not familiar with okonomiyaki; I will pick some up if tonkatsu doean't do the trick.  The more I think about it, the morelike the tonkatsu seems likely. Thanks!


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