An ode to Kewpie sauce
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: an ode to Kewpie sauce.
Maybe you've landed in Kewpie mayonnaise heaven a while ago and maybe it's because of our contagious Kewpie addiction (yes folks, we can't stop talking about our favorite mayo at the FavorFlav editorial office (although FavorFlav's Sabina has a serious crush on the lemon mayo from Lidl). But did you know that the Japanese Kewpie has many more delicious sauces in its range? Like the – MAKE ME CRAZY – sesame sauce.
Kewpie has a long rich history, and one of the first things I learned about it was that you pronounce it as kewpie. Immediately after that, I learned something much more important: always make sure you have a bottle of Kewpie mayonnaise in your pantry stock. Because, yes believe me: Kewpie is the tastiest mayo in the world.
Kewpie, I love you
You pay about four euros for a tube, which may seem a bit extravagant, but once you taste this mayonnaise, you won't want anything else. Kewpie mayonnaise (with nn) is much sourer than the average mayo and therefore perfect on greasy Japanese dishes like okonomiyaki and takoyaki. But also over your avocado, your egg, as a base for a tuna salad; you name it, I dip it. The fact that I find Kewpie mayo so delicious might also be due to a secret ingredient; it contains MSG (also known as ve-tsin) in it. This makes the mayo extra addictive and full of umami.
MSG, help!
Do you think now: yuck, MSG, that's bad news, then I need to help you out of this evil dream. MSG occurs in many different natural ingredients, such as tomatoes, walnuts, seaweed, green tea, but also in soy sauce, yeast extract, and miso. Even manufactured MSG mainly comes from bacterial fermentation and not from chemical synthesis. Tim Anderson, the expert on the Japanese cuisine and author of the delightful Vegan JapanEasy, recently pointed this out: countless colleagues have been unable to demonstrate in recent decades that MSG has short-term or long-term effects on health, including the so-called ‘Chinese restaurant syndrome’, a vaguely racist and poorly defined group of symptoms like headaches, a red face, and sweating.
That said: in my favorite Japanese Kewpie dressing, MSG is absent, so if you want to avoid MSG despite the above, you can eat this dressing with peace of mind.
Toasted sesame seeds
And you want to, because Kewpie's Deep Roasted Sesame Dressing is truly irresistible. In Japanese cuisine, sesame seeds are almost always roasted first, giving them a delicious, full, nutty flavor and a crunchy texture. Roasting them yourself is easy, I always do it with sesame seeds; you put the seeds in a dry frying pan over medium heat and stir them until they are golden brown and fragrant.
Fluffy and creamy
And partly because of those roasted sesame seeds, combined with soy sauce, spicy vinegar, and brown sugar, this dressing is a real umami bomb. Add to that the fact that this salad dressing is fluffy creamy and has body, and you immediately understand: this is simply delicious over (almost) everything. A generous splash of this sweet-savory liquid gold gives so many dishes a big boost and the possibilities are endless. Delicious over salmon (from the oven, or over your sashimi), irresistible over chicken (preferably not raw, although chicken sashimi exists), indispensable in a good poke bowl. Great as a salad dressing (especially if it contains avocado!), as a vegetable dip, and marinade for all kinds of meat.
Easily available
And the great thing about all this is: Kewpie is now widely available. Not only in urban XXL Albert Heijns, but even on the shelves of the Jumbo in my village. So you now know what to do on your next grocery adventure: grab a bottle of Kewpie Deep Roasted Sesame Dressing. Thank me later!
