potsticker sauce - where to buy?

Anyone know if stores sell dipping sauce for pot stickers? I know its not just soy sauce. I dont want to waiste buying the ingredients seperatly to make a single serving for me.

Is there a brand name and store that sells GYOZA/potsticker dipping sauce?

I had no idea they sell a special sauce for potstickers....

I use about equal amounts of soy sauce and lemon juice.

Kikkoman ponzu sauce works; so does their memmi sauce.


A useful recipe is equal parts

soy

chinkiang vinegar

sesame oil

a bit of shredded garlic, chopped green onion and rings of fresh red chili can be added for garnish.


Geo

http://www.wingyipstore.co.uk/product-006288.html

Richwell Market sells Weichuan brand "Dumpling Sauce -- Hot". The ingredients on the back are soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, garlic juice, sesame oil, and chili oil.

Richwell Market
1835 S Canal St
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 492-7170

Any grocery with a decent asian section will have a bottle of what you're looking for. I saw it today at Marketplace on Oakton.

But, I never like this bottled stuff. I usually whip up a few different dipping sauces when having dumplings at home. It's easy to throw together a sauce with items that I have on hand for other preparations, and it only takes a minute or two. Here's a thread I started on the subject that has quite a few ideas:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=686

Best,
Michael

Marketplace on Oakton
4817 W. Oakton
Skokie

I'm fairly certain I've bought it at Treasure Island. Most Asian food producers seem to bottle it. The brand I currently have on hand is Ajinomoto, and it's called "Gyoza Dipping Sauce," but I've previously bought more mainstream brands. As other posters have pointed out, it's simple to make. I've always used soy sauce and rice vinegar as my base (and those are the first two ingredients listed on the bottle I have), but you can adjust from there...a little sugar, sesame oil, garlic, scallions.

my typical recipe is 2 parts good soy, 1 part rice wine vinegar, 1 part sesame oil, a little sugar to taste, grate some ginger, maybe some garlic if your dumplings are bland, and sliver some chives or scallions. Fresh garlic and scallions will beat anything bottled.

Hands down.

If nothing else, put some scallions and ginger in anything bottled you get.

JoelF wrote:my typical recipe is 2 parts good soy, 1 part rice wine vinegar, 1 part sesame oil, a little sugar to taste, grate some ginger, maybe some garlic if your dumplings are bland, and sliver some chives or scallions. Fresh garlic and scallions will beat anything bottled.

Hands down.

If nothing else, put some scallions and ginger in anything bottled you get.

How could I have omitted ginger from my suggested recipe? Serious brain lapse on my part!

Amata wrote:Richwell Market sells Weichuan brand "Dumpling Sauce -- Hot". The ingredients on the back are soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, garlic juice, sesame oil, and chili oil.

Thanks Amata for the suggestion. I bought the Wei-Chuan Dumpling Sauce @ Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Hts for $1.59 for the bottle. They have both hot and mild varieties of the sauce.

Ah - another good point. If I have chili oil, I use that with or instead of the sesame oil.

JoelF wrote:Ah - another good point. If I have chili oil, I use that with or instead of the sesame oil.

I usually have a bottle of this stuff on hand for use in dumpling sauces with a bit of a kick.

polster wrote:

Amata wrote:Richwell Market sells Weichuan brand "Dumpling Sauce -- Hot". The ingredients on the back are soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, garlic juice, sesame oil, and chili oil.

Thanks Amata for the suggestion. I bought the Wei-Chuan Dumpling Sauce @ Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Hts for $1.59 for the bottle. They have both hot and mild varieties of the sauce.

I have purchased both of these varieties from ASIA Supermarket in Naperville. They also have a very large selection of frozen dumplings.

Flip

eatchicago wrote:I usually have a bottle of this stuff on hand for use in dumpling sauces with a bit of a kick.

Michael,

I usually have a bottle of this around for the same purpose.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

eatchicago wrote:I usually have a bottle of this stuff on hand for use in dumpling sauces with a bit of a kick.

I usually have a bottle of this around for the same purpose.

I try to as well, but I get tired of stuffing clams into a bottle.

Ohhhhhh....You meant the chili oil. Got it.

it is all about garlic for dumpling dips and you just can't get that goodness in a dumpling sauce, "Weichuan" - a trusted old school Taiwanese brand - or not.

my favorite dumpling stand in Flushing, NY has soysauce "marinaded" with cloves and cloves of garlic.

for myself, i use a small dish, light soy sauce, rice vinegar, sriracha's chili garlic paste and mounds of chopped garlic. slivers of ginger is great for xiao long bao, but i don't use it for dumplings/potstickers.

My preference is a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine or chinese black vinegar (which produce rather different sauces, but are both nice), lan chi garlic chile paste, and slivers of raw garlic.

I'm tempted to make a big batch of potstickers this weekend after this thread...

Tony, I don't suppose you have a recipe for chengdu dumplings, eh?

I also bought a bottle of wei chuan today (the hot variety). It has plenty of garlic, but not enough vinegar for my taste, although it is "hen la".

polster wrote:

Amata wrote:Richwell Market sells Weichuan brand "Dumpling Sauce -- Hot". The ingredients on the back are soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, garlic juice, sesame oil, and chili oil.

Thanks Amata for the suggestion. I bought the Wei-Chuan Dumpling Sauce @ Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Hts for $1.59 for the bottle. They have both hot and mild varieties of the sauce.

OMG, I LOVE that stuff! No kidding - I think it's the garlic juice. I was searching for it online and came across your post.

I am the type to try to figure this stuff out on my own after tasting it, so this may not be authentic, but I basically I use half soy, half rice wine vinegar and a squirt of sriracha. Not too much specialty stuff to keep on hand, really.

I hope you find something you like!!

We checked out Chicago Food Corp. for the first time last Sunday night (and it was awesome) and got the Weichaun dumpling sauce, along with a bag of frozen dumplings.

The dumpling sauce, although different from what I'm used to in the usual Chinese restaurants, had a nice flavor. We cut up some green onions and added them to the sauce.

The frozen dumplings were not cost-effective (I thought). I saw some jars of tiny shrimp in the store and will go back to buy those shrimp and make my own shiu mai. The last time I made shiu mai, I made a bundle, but used the wrong shrimp. You're supposed to use the tiny shrimp, but I didn't have any on hand and wound up grinding a bunch of regular-sized shrimp.

TODG and I took shu mai lessons at the local decent Chinese restaurant. The chef said that we were to chop up regular shrimp into pea-sized (or maybe slightly larger) pieces, and then stir the final mixture rather forcibly. The shrimp, according to him, would turn into the requisite paste during the stirring, and thereby glue everything together as desired.

He was right. And we were rather pleased by the result!

Geo

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to this forum. I was reading through some threads and came across this one. My DH makes a sauce that is very different than the ones that you find in the restaurants or stores, but I like it just as much. We often have Trader joe's gyoza as the main course of a meal, this sauce is especially complimentary to the chicken gyoza. He mixes a brown/deli style mustard with blasamic vinegar. The proportions are just under 1.5 (mustard):1 (vinegar), we mix to taste. I don't like soy sauce, so he just adds it to his food. The great thing is you can make a little or a lot, and season to your preference.

I just got some at Matsuwa in Arlington Heights

Made some slight changes last night that really made a difference in the sauce. I started with the standard base:

2 Tbsp each of sesame oil, soy sauce and aged black vinegar

To which I added:

half tsp of Thai fish sauce

half tsp of really good Szechuan blackened-chili sauce

1 chopped green onion

half a clove really thinly sliced garlic

Let it age for half an hour.


This was so good, it has become my Platonic Ideal jiaozi sauce.

Geo

Reviving this thread 11 years late, but better than letting the correct answer go unsaid. Best potsticker sauce available for retail purchase in Chicago-area, this is somewhat of a passion of mine, is:
- Dynasty Brand Potsticker Sauce

I go to Sunset Foods in Highland Park to purchase it as every competing option at Assi, Seafood City, Jung Boo or Whole Foods is vastly inferior. It is better than the sauces provided by restaurants IMO, but adding chili oil is necessary.

bweiny wrote:Reviving this thread 11 years late, but better than letting the correct answer go unsaid.

Thank you!

I love, love, love when old threads get updated with new information.

You made my day!

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Thank you!
I love, love, love when old threads get updated with new information.
You made my day!

My pleasure Cathy. I see you're in HP so I hope you hold me to my word and let me know if I'm off base. Sunset has the market cornered in offering the perfect little fine touches (despite being out of both Fresh Gourmet crouton options I needed yesterday, Focaccia-best Ciabatta-2nd best).