When I was growing up, there were only three brands of shoyu: Kikkoman, Aloha, and Yamasa. Anything else was so horrible that you shouldn’t even call it soy sauce. So imagine my suspicion one day when I bought a sushi bento and got a little packet of shoyu by Sempio.
I’d become wary of anything outside my golden trifecta of soy sauce making gods. However, this Korean brand of sauce was different, tasty, and wonderful. While at Marukai one day, I saw this bag of sauce and decided to buy one to try it out. Unfortunately, since this was still back when I was living in West Oahu, I didn’t cook very much and thus, when I finally went to use it, it was expired.
A couple of months ago I bought another one and this time I remembered to use it in time. Unfortunately, kalbi is a little too fatty for me to be eating right now on Weight Watchers, so I opted to use some flank steak instead. I sliced it up against the grain and marinated it in about a cup of sauce for about half an hour. It smells really really good.
After that, I heated up my cast iron skillet and fried the pieces of meat front and back without oil added. Mr. Pikko yelled from another room that dinner smelled really good.
The meat cooked really quickly and I had to adjust the heat several times to avoid burning the sauce too much. It was very fast and I served it with rice and asparagus for an incredibly tasty and fast meal. The bag even comes with a handy screw top for easy opening and closing.
Seriously so good. Normally I’m leery of ready made sauces as they can be so hit or miss, but this one made my meat taste like Korean takeout. Although it’s not yet available on Amazon, you can still sign up for updates on when Sempio Kalbi Sauce is in stock.
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