Food & Wine USA - (03)March 2020

MARCH 2020 23

OBSESSIONS

Top-Shelf Sauce

Rich and deeply

satisfying, Megachef

is your new secret

ingredient.

By Karen Shimizu

EDITORS’ PICK

I THOUGHT MY F&W COLLEAGUE

Melanie Hansche was crazy for or-

dering oyster sauce by the case—until

she gave me a bottle of Megachef

Premium Oyster Sauce to try at

home. As soon I popped the cap off

the bottle, I began to understand.

Whether or not you’ve cooked

with it, you’ve probably had oyster

sauce. It’s a key ingredient in Can-

tonese food, used for velveting pro-

teins. (And yes, it contains oysters.)

Most versions I’d tried were along

the lines of the heavy brown sauce

in Chinese takeout; Megachef had a

salty, satisfying flavor that was un-

expectedly vivid and clean-tasting.

I started using it to finish all kinds of

dishes, especially vegetables.

Chinese culinary expert Grace

Young, another fan of Megachef,

associates its rich, satisfying flavor

with Cantonese foods from her

childhood: “My parents used to com-

bine oyster sauce with a pinch of

sugar, soy sauce, and sesame oil to

drizzle over vegetables; we’d scram-

ble eggs and have a little oyster sauce

on the side.” Young had stopped

cooking some of those foods because

the supermarket versions of oyster

sauce didn’t match her memories.

Megachef, she discovered, was a

purer touchstone.

Despite a passionate following

(chef Andy Ricker sources it for his

restaurants), Megachef is hard

enough to find in U.S. stores that you

might have to order it wholesale by

the case. But online retailer The Mala

Market now carries it, so you can

start with just a bottle, if you like.

($15, themalamarket.com)

HOW TO USE

OYSTER SAUCE

Dip: Stir together oyster

sauce, a pinch of sugar, a

splash of soy sauce, and a

splash of sesame oil; dunk

raw vegetables or Viet-

namese rice paper rolls.

Drizzle: Top 1 pound

steamed broccoli with

2 tablespoons oyster

sauce.

Deglaze: Sauté 1 pound
green beans or aspara-
gus and 2 sliced garlic
cloves in 2 tablespoons
vegetable oil until crisp-
tender; deglaze pan with a
mixture of ½ cup chicken
stock, ¼ cup oyster
sauce, 2 tablespoons
fish sauce, and a pinch
of crushed red pepper.
Simmer until glossy;
FO serve hot.

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produced by OSET BABUR photography by VICTOR PROTASIO