Help identify: flavoring paste in soup

[shain]

When I visited Taiwan earlier this year we had soup at a street side stall. You could pick ingredients and the vendor would stew them and served with the stock. On top of the bowl they placed a paste that I couldn't identify. It was grainy and dark grayish-red, quite spicy and I believe might have contained fermened beans. 

Anyone able to Identity it? 

 

 

[BonVivant]

Looks like shacha sauce. It's a popular paste/sauce and has multiple uses. You tend to get it with soups and hot pot meals.

 

Did you eat the dark block in your bowl? I love this stuff.

[shain]

2 hours ago, BonVivant said:

Looks like shacha sauce. It's a popular paste/sauce and has multiple uses. You tend to get it with soups and hot pot meals.

 

Did you eat the dark block in your bowl? I love this stuff.

 

Looks spot on! Many thanks.

I had the tiniest nibble of this blood cake (it was duck's I believe) - I'm a vegetarian (to some definition, since I'm OK with some types of seafood), but it was interesting enough to try. I recall it had tofu-like texture, with a mild flavor and obviously some irony flavor.

I had ramen noodles with stewed soft tofu, fried tofu skin, kumbo and shrimp balls. 

[liuzhou]

It was grainy and dark grayish-red, quite spicy

 

Yes.沙 茶酱 (shā chá jiàng) Shacha Sauce.

 

The 沙 means 'sand' referring to that grainy texture you describe.

 

 

6 hours ago, shain said:

I had the tiniest nibble of this blood cake (it was duck's I believe)

 

Could be duck blood, but pig's blood is more common.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2019 by liuzhou (log)