HELP! "Restaurant" Chinese "watery" dipping sauce

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Old thread is old and I'm guessing that the OP with 10 posts in nearly 4 years probably won't read this but:

I just had an idea! Ask the wait staff what the sauce is called next time you're in there.

To me it sounds like the Duck Sauce that comes with Chinese takeout, which I consider the most useless sauce ever invented. It's a "slightly" sauce; It has a slight flavor, with the slightest hint of citrus and sugar, and is slightly thickened with some kind of starch.
But mostly it tastes like nothing.
 
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I too, have been searching... I finally found the distributor. And they do call their concoction 'Plum Sauce' ... I'm trying to get the ingredient list; they don't sell online or even have a website that I can find; but I will be in the area next week and will be visiting in person to see what options I have to buy and have it shipped out of state. The distributor is "Egg Roll King", they make the egg rolls and the sauce. ERK Distributors,
301 Hacker St, Rochester, Michigan 48307

16463601_1024624427642011_2279696433019328702_o.jpg
 
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Hey Thymeless, Love to hear what you found out. This whole bean sprout egg roll and special sauce has been driving me crazy for years! Other ppl will never understand lol
 
Hey there!
This post is so Very late I know... BUT!! I am also from Michigan! I lived there for over 40 years. I have been searching like crazy for the recipe for this sauce too! All the common recipes that result from the searches are: ALL sauces found
are definitely too thick, not 'tart' enough, or are too dark...

I would also LOVE it and would ever be grateful to anyone that can find the recipe to this sauce we are craving!!

I used to slice off the very end of my eggroll, pour this runny sauce into the eggroll, essentially filling it up. it would be dripping out the other end as I bit into the eggroll... so sweet, so tart... PERFECT!!! ESPECIALLY WITH THE BEAN SPROUTS!!!

I've lived in Texas for the past 9 years and I can't think of anything more "foodwise" that I miss from Michigan... other than maybe the refried beans at Mexican restaurants!! They ALL taste like dog food here!!

Please let us know if you find the recipe for this amazing eggroll sauce! And if I find it, no matter how much later it is, I'm coming here to post it! :D
 
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Hi and welcome to Discuss Cooking [emoji2]

I think you're thinking of duck sauce. You can buy it at the supermarket or you can make it. I've never made it - I prefer sweet Thai chili sauce because it has a similar flavor with added heat from the chiles. I did a quick Google search for recipes and they're all over the place - one has just two ingredients - apricot jam and vinegar - and another has you more than a dozen ingredients and has to cure for three weeks before using lol

So it's up to you how much time, effort and energy you want to put into it. Easiest thing is just to buy it. 002059550.jpg
 
I believe I've found it. I also read that many restaurants also add rice vinegar to the recipe for this sauce. It's called Nuoc Cham dipping sauce and you can either make it yourself by looking up the recipe or you can find it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M5GE6ZZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_SGM8EPHHT22DRW1H265M

vietnamese-dipping-sauce-us.png

I have made n'uo'k cham, it's not hard. It is an amazing sauce. Even though there is sugar in it, I don't really notice it being sweet. Maybe that's because the recipe I use has proportionally a lot more fish sauce, Mine is also darker. Does the the stuff in that bottle look like the one you are used to?

Here's the recipe for the Blue Dragon n'uo'k cham: https://www.bluedragon.co.uk/recipes/vietnamese-dipping-sauce-nuoc-cham
 
I believe I've found it. I also read that many restaurants also add rice vinegar to the recipe for this sauce. It's called Nuoc Cham dipping sauce and you can either make it yourself by looking up the recipe or you can find it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M5GE6ZZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_SGM8EPHHT22DRW1H265M

vietnamese-dipping-sauce-us.png
Could be, but I think it's unlikely that a Chinese restaurant would serve a Vietnamese dipping sauce. This has a very different flavor from duck sauce, which has a pronounced sweetness.
 
I have made n'uo'k cham, it's not hard. It is an amazing sauce. Even though there is sugar in it, I don't really notice it being sweet. Maybe that's because the recipe I use has proportionally a lot more fish sauce, Mine is also darker. Does the the stuff in that bottle look like the one you are used to?

Here's the recipe for the Blue Dragon n'uo'k cham: https://www.bluedragon.co.uk/recipes/vietnamese-dipping-sauce-nuoc-cham
The sugar is to balance the acidity, not to make it sweet.
 
Welcome to the forum, Jen!
That nuoc cham you mention is totally different from that duck sauce, and something I like a lot better! Great for dumplings, spring rolls, rice wraps, lettuce wraps, and many other things - the proverbial Vietnamese table sauce. Super easy to make, too, and much better that what you'll get in a bottle. Those in bottles, as well as many recipes I've seen, will be much sweeter - sometimes ok, but not something I want on most things I use it on.

This is my favorite recipe I've found. It has a hint of the rice vinegar in it, but the lime is the main source of the acid in it. Like anything with the fresh garlic, it does not keep well - a few days in the fridge, and it starts tasting "off". However, a mix of the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and rice vinegar in these proportions stores well in the fridge just add a little less water than sauce mix, and a little minced garlic and minced chili pepper, and it's basically freshly made! Be sure to use a fish sauce that's good uncooked, like Red Boat, Trachang, or Golden Boy. And if you have an Asian market nearby, see if you can get some of those medium sized orange peppers in the produce section - not as hot as the skinny red Thai peppers (most common), and the flavor is better in this. I almost never use only 1 clove of garlic, but it is enough in this, letting other flavors through.

Nuoc Cham

1/4 c fish sauce
1/4 c freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 c water
2 tsp white rice vinegar
1 tb white or palm sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Thai or Vietnamese pepper, minced

Mix all of the ingredients together, until the sugar dissolves.

That's it! Doesn't get much easier, with all the ingredients on hand.

 
This is not the sauce you are looking for, but is a great sauce with egg rolls, won tons, spring rolls, lumpia. etc. It can also be modified by replacing the brown sugar with white sugar, and the pineapple with either lemon, or orange juice, and goes well with every protein that I have tried it with. Give it a try. You won't be disappointed. Oh, and you can add sweet, or hot peppers to it as well.

Chief Longwind's Pineapple Sweet & Sour Sauce:
Ingredients:
2 cups chicken broth (water can be used if no broth is available)
1/4 tsp. ginger
1 tbs. onion powder or 1/4 onion finely chopped
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/8 tsp. Chinese 5-spice powder
16 oz. can crushed or chunk pineapple (substitute 1/2 cup lemon juice if used for seafood)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (substitute 1/2 cup white granulated sugar if lemon juice is used)
1/8 cup balsamic, or apple cider vinegar
1/4 chopped sweet pepper (optional but omit if lemon juice is used)
2 tbs. cornstarch mixed with 4 oz. water

Heat broth to simmering over medium heat. Add the pineapple, ginger, garlic, five spice, and onion. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients except for the cornstarch. Simmer for ten minutes. Taste and adjust the vinegar/sugar to taste. Mix the cornstarch with the water tor make a smooth slurry. Slowly stir the slurry into the sweet & sour sauce to thicken. Enjoy.

Tip: This sauce is also good on stir fries, or used as a glaze on roasted poultry, and pork, such as spare ribs.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Welcome to the forum, Jen!
That nuoc cham you mention is totally different from that duck sauce, and something I like a lot better! Great for dumplings, spring rolls, rice wraps, lettuce wraps, and many other things - the proverbial Vietnamese table sauce. Super easy to make, too, and much better that what you'll get in a bottle. Those in bottles, as well as many recipes I've seen, will be much sweeter - sometimes ok, but not something I want on most things I use it on.

This is my favorite recipe I've found. It has a hint of the rice vinegar in it, but the lime is the main source of the acid in it. Like anything with the fresh garlic, it does not keep well - a few days in the fridge, and it starts tasting "off". However, a mix of the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and rice vinegar in these proportions stores well in the fridge just add a little less water than sauce mix, and a little minced garlic and minced chili pepper, and it's basically freshly made! Be sure to use a fish sauce that's good uncooked, like Red Boat, Trachang, or Golden Boy. And if you have an Asian market nearby, see if you can get some of those medium sized orange peppers in the produce section - not as hot as the skinny red Thai peppers (most common), and the flavor is better in this. I almost never use only 1 clove of garlic, but it is enough in this, letting other flavors through.

Nuoc Cham

1/4 c fish sauce
1/4 c freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 c water
2 tsp white rice vinegar
1 tb white or palm sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Thai or Vietnamese pepper, minced

Mix all of the ingredients together, until the sugar dissolves.

That's it! Doesn't get much easier, with all the ingredients on hand.


You don't mash the garlic, pepper, and sugar in a mortar and pestle? The other recipes for nuoc cham that I have seen say to do that. I'll have to give this easier method a try.
 
You don't mash the garlic, pepper, and sugar in a mortar and pestle? The other recipes for nuoc cham that I have seen say to do that. I'll have to give this easier method a try.


When I mince the smaller amounts of garlic and pepper for this, and some other things that often call for mashed ingredients, they are almost as if they had been mashed in a mortar! I chop them up some, scrape them into a small strip of the ingredients, and place the knife or cleaver on it, and bang on it, then scrape it up, and repeat a couple of times. I use the mortars when I'm doing larger amounts, but even then, I chop it briefly, especially when cutting fibrous things, like ginger, galangal, and lemongrass, slicing across the fibers first.
 
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When I mince the smaller amounts of garlic and pepper for this, and some other things that often call for mashed ingredients, they are almost as if they had been mashed in a mortar! I chop them up some, scrape them into a small strip of the ingredients, and place the knife or cleaver on it, and bang on it, then scrape it up, and repeat a couple of times. I use the mortars when I'm doing larger amounts, but even then, I chop it briefly, especially when cutting fibrous things, like ginger, galangal, and lemongrass, slicing across the fibers first.

Thanks :flowers:
 
I know this post is very late but I live in Michigan and this called Hankuk Oriental Market & Restaurant [KOREAN] is in clinton twp that sale sauce you want by the glass jar or gallon
 
Plum sauce

It's a Chinese pickled plum sauce and it does have pickled plums and vinegar and apricot preserves and I cannot remember what else but Chee Kong in Davison, MI has it and bean sprout egg rolls. Which I've come to find out are Detroit style egg rolls.
 
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