"Sqwertz" > wrote in message
...
> "J.Lef" > wrote:
>
>> Just picked up a new carbon steel joyce chen wok. (I also have a
>> new
>> cooktop, with some high output burners)
>> Looking at the recipe included for fried rice, it says to use a tsp of
>> chinese brown gravy syrup(and specifically it says not soy sauce)
>> Any idea what this could be. Oyster sauce maybee. I thought I was
>> familiar with most asian ingrediants, but this one stumps me.
>> Can someone clue me in please.
>
> It's referring to liquid Maggi Seasoning. AKA Hydrolyzed soy
> protein. AKA Really cheap soy sauce. La Choy and Chun King also
> make it, calling it Soy Sauce (which it isn't).
>
> -sw

Maggi started out in Europe as a food/flavor stretcher for the new
industrial class families, (bouillon cubes sound familiar?), a wheat based
version of soy sauce if you will, giving it a umami like flavoring. Now
days it's ingredients depends on it intended market. All regions have
somewhat different flavorings, Asian has soy in it, the German as I recall
was the better, certainly different than the American or the Mexican.