Last weekend I attended my first ever wedding potluck (so much fun!). The bride and groom requested vegetarian dishes for the evening and I decided to go with Singapore Rice Noodles- rice vermicelli with a rich curry sauce and lots of veggies (and eggs and Chinese BBQ pork for the original version). For my recipe I usually use fish sauce and oyster sauce to provide that much needed 'umami' to the dish- without them, the dish is just flat.
To make this a vegan dish, I need to find suitable replacement for the real things. I trekked down to my favorite Asian grocery market and searched the aisles until I found the 2 bottles you see pictured above.
I've always heard great things about the mushroom vegetarian 'oyster' sauce and the vegetarian 'fish' sauce was new to me. In fact, I only bought the 'fish' sauce because I saw a woman pick up a bottle while the other confirmed that was the right stuff in Cantonese. I figured it was low risk purchase, so why not go ahead and try it.
Suffice to say, on their own, out of the bottle, there is no comparison to the real thing. These are just substitutes trying to fake your taste buds. However, when mixed in the dish, it provided enough depth to my dish that you would have never known that the real thing wasn't used. I was impressed.
I think the mushroom vegetarian 'oyster' sauce has more applications in Chinese cooking and could easily be used as a substitute for the real thing in dishes. I wouldn't say the same for the vegetarian 'fish' sauce. It smells a lot like the real thing, but the flavor profile lacks the complexity of the real thing. I'd only use it in dishes where it is not the primary flavoring ingredient.
I'm sure I have more experimentation to do, so be sure to check back for an update!
