Dim sum dipping sauce - your favourite recipe?

Well, that’s your problem right there.

Didn’t have a problem… other than some of your posts I suppose. You’re a mod, right? Is that why I can’t ignore you?

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Right. I don’t dip things like har gow or siu mai. And cheong fun always has its own sweet soy. Likewise I don’t dip baozi.
Something like radish cake might get a drizzle of chili sauce or oil.
No need for chicken feet or tripe with ginger and scallion or with black pepper sauce to get any sort of additional sauces. Or lo mai gai.
But then I’m not one to dip even more standard boiled dumplings that much. I like vinegar and chili oil, but I also love eating the dumplings plain.

Tell that to every dim sum restaurant I’ve ever been to. Dumplings and rice rolls absolutely come with sauce.

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Yes.

I periodically buy them frozen from the supermarket (usually when they are on discount). Usually Sui mai, har gau and gyoza.

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I’ve become even lazier with the boiled dumplings at home. I boil a several dumplings, put them in a bowl, add a drizzle of soy sauce, a drizzle of vinegar, a sprinkle of sugar, a dash of hot pepper flakes and a dash of sesame oil on top of the dumplings.

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Sounds good to me. I’d add a drizzle of sesame oil and some sliced green onion if I wanted to be all fancy.

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I was just at a Dim Sum restaurant today. For steam rice rolls, they either already put the sauce on it, or if they are nice enough, they put it on the side and you decide how much to add. Regardless, it is expected that the customers will want some level of sauce.

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I am like you. I tend to not add beyond the “expected”, like so many people have said, some dim sum already came with sauce, that is different. In general, I rarely find myself in a situation where I want to add more sauce. More often though, I find myself thinking the dim sums are too salty or too oil – e.g. there were probably more cases where I want to take something away from the dim sum, not put something in.

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I forgot to share with you. When I do add seasoning to say… boiled/blanched dumplings. I gradually increase the spices later. Let’s say I boiled 9 dumplings. I may the first three with very little seasoning, and then the next three with vinegar, and the then last three with chili pepper with vinegar.

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Shoyu, black or regular rice vinegar (depending on my mood), and lots of very thinly sliced ginger. Sometimes I add sesame oil or chili oil.

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OK, tonight’s the night. A solo dim sum dinner for one (Mrs H is at a family meet-up). And it’s going to make a bit more space in the freezer for stuff for Xmas & New Year. My thanks for all the contributions.

I’m going to make two sauces. My normal one - basically crispy chili and soy. And a sort of distillation of ideas from the thread - black vinegar, soy, sesame oil, garlic & ginger. I’ll let you know how it went.

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A different restaurant now. This time the sauce has already been applied

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Well, I’ve had a nice evening. Both dipping sauces worked well - I liked the tang from black vinegar that had been recommended. And then I spent an hour watching the cricket highlights.

Meanwhile, Mrs H had an indifferent lasagne at the Italian place in the village while she caught up with our niece and her two children.

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Although not traditional, I find yuzu vinegar provide a fruity citrus flavor which work well in many situations. Not recommending these particularly brands, just photos as examples.

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Expanding on what @Chemicalkinetics posted, I sometimes use ponzu with some Chinese hot mustard added for shumai or gyoza instead of the usual soy sauce with vinegar mixture. It’s easy and refreshing. I love black vinegar, but it’s not too easy to find here in regional Japanese cities and rather costly when found.

Ponzu is nice. I do sometime like to try different sauce. Just last night I used yuzu kosho (柚子胡椒) for some Taiwanese fried stinky tofu

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Ponzu is relatively easy for me to get but I’ve not previously heard of the mustard. I’m going to have to take myself off into the city and see if I can find it in Chinatown. Is it likely to be labelled as such or does it have another name?

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Other name: Coleman Dry. In the US, Dynasty is available in California.

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As @Alan707 noted, what I call “Chinese hot mustard” is a ready-made form of “English Colman’s dry mustard powder”. I must note that I was admonished by a Chinese person (from Shanghai) that I used Chinese hot mustard with shumai. She was quite adamant that no one in China does that (I felt that “no one” was a bold statement to make, but…) Anyway, I sometimes like to use it. In San Francisco’s Chinatown I was once served shumai with a red vinegar, but I’ve never seen it served that way anywhere else. Although it was good, I have no idea what type of vinegar it was.

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