Originally Posted by
gaobest
What does that dark sauce taste like - it’s not semi sweet / salty?
i do wonder if it’s sauce from preserved pork belly (or whatever that fat back stuff is) because the meat part of the pork belly should have that dark soy sauce color. Maybe that’s it? I definitely recall the tamales having both the Chinese sausage and preserved fat back (as a parent referred to it for my benefit).
Depends on where you go. Up here, it's definitely less sweet than the cheong-fan type soy sauces (and thicker). In Singapore the ones I've had were even more thicker and only slightly sweet, more savoury. It could be a mushroom based soy sauce with some sugar and oil...
For the the tamales, I think you're referring to zhongzi (or ba-zhang)... That's different. I usually add a bit of light soy sauce (have way too many packets lying around from takeaway sushi this year). I don't think that's fatback in there though. I know what you're talking about but the ones I have had usually have some fatty meat (more meat than fat and that has been steamed to near melting) no sausage but sometimes a salty egg yolk. I always keep a few of these in the fridge in case I feel lazy about cooking.
Actually that reminds me, I have a batch of salty eggs to pull out before they become more salt than eggs. Guess I'm having congee tomorrow.