I object! This is not the way to eat potstickers. Once you try them with the right dressing, you'll be a sad, sad individual like me at restaurants, staring down potstickers looking naked with a wardrobe of the wrong things to wear.
What send potstickers into the firmament is:
Rice vinegar + hot chili oil.
That's it. Srsly. Not chili paste or chili sauce, but chili oil. When it mixes on the plate with the vinegar, it makes a glaze, potsticker-centric vinaigrette that absolutely sends you.
Try it, Tell me if I am not über-correct. Tell me if after trying this you prefer soy sauce. Good luck.
NOTE: When I was 10, we moved from Vermont to San Francisco and within what seems like weeks we were experiencing amazing flavors and International traditions, and this edict of mine comes from forays to Hunan, one of the city's first pepper-driven, no-MSG, western-friendly Chinese restaurants. It was located mere blocks from Chinatown proper, but in an akward fringe part of the downtown business zone, and hence felt neither inscrutable nor touristy to its slavering patrons.
I think it depends on the pot sticker. If it is stuffed with lots of deliciousness then you may want a straight forward soy sauce, whereas if it is a plane jane pork ps then I'd say chili oil (usually sesame oil) and vinegar and perhaps even a drop of soy may add complexity to an otherwise simple dish.
ReplyDeleteSide note: why is it called pot sticker when clearly they should be called pan sticker since the best ones are pan fried?
I can't explain the "pot" in Potsticker, but I love the new abbrev ps. Using it going forward. I like your sauce program/decision-making, but I'd argue that the vinegar brings out the flavor of any — including really tiptop — ps. Maybe in that case just dress it a lot more lightly? Also using the idea of adding a a single drop of soy.
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