I noticed that David Chang likes to add a bit of agave nectar to his fried rice. I never thought about adding something sweet to this, so I started adding a small amount of brown sugar (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 tsp) to my fried rice, and it really seems to make it tastier. It doesn’t read as “sweet” - it just gives it a tiny bit of an additional flavor boost. Since then I’ve also tried playing around with adding a tiny amount of sugar to other things, and it’s usually pretty good.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Sugar tastes good. So does salt, maybe some fat, some acidity, and a little MSG. Just don’t overdo it, or you’ll get too much of one flavor and it won’t be palatable.

  • IamLost@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    My brother and I were trying to replicate my grandmother’s curry recipe after she passed and got close but something was off. We couldn’t pin it down for years until one day my mother mistook the sugar for salt and added a tablespoon of it to the curry. We were amazed cause it now tasted exactly like grandma’s. You couldn’t taste the sugar, but it just rounded out all the other flavors. So now when there’s a thing that’s missing and I’m stumped, I try a bit of sugar and it’s usually the answer.

    • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      It’s funny how it’s hard to tell what isn’t there sometimes, right? I left salt out of a dessert a few times and it just didn’t taste right. I had to go back through my steps to realize that I’d forgotten the salt.

  • bl4ckblooc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    It’s pretty common in Thailand and Cambodia for fried rice to be made with a spoonful of white sugar.

  • Alchemy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Doing this tonight with a pasta sauce we are building. Will let you know how it goes!

    • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Good point! I can’t think of a time when I didn’t add something sweet to a stir fry, even if it was just a touch of something.

  • canthidium@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    I’m like this with soy sauce. I almost always add at least a splash of soy sauce in just about everything. Or sometimes fish sauce or worcestershire.

    • The Giant Korean@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Oh yes! That umami!

      My dad told me about a guy he knew in the army who would put a drop of soy sauce in his coffee… Sounded weird but I tried it and it’s actually pretty decent.

      • canthidium@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        OMG, I’m going to have to try this. I mean it’s basically salt and salt bring out the flavor. I wonder how it compares to the recent butter in coffee trend.

        I love soy sauce so much. I’m a bit embarrased but sometimes I open my pantry and just take a tiny swig of the soy sauce straight from the bottle. I just love it, lmao.

  • Psythik@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Sugar and butter is also the secret to making vegetables taste better.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.netEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Sugar is basically a drug. Restaurants have been adding small amounts of sugar to everything for years because it’s addictive. It doesn’t have to change the flavor at all to make food “better” because your body wants the sugar.

  • damnthefilibuster@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I once added a spoonful of sugar to Maggi (Indian instant noodles) and it boosted the flavor so much that it’s a crucial ingredient for me now. That and butter.