Help Identify Sauce! (Context Provided)
Hey everyone! I posted yesterday but for some reason the text didn’t upload with the photo, and I had actually posted the wrong image. I need help identifying a sauce that is served at a Vietnamese restaurant in my city. I’ve uploaded a customer image and an image from the restaurants Facebook page. For context, I make a crispy pork belly recipe that just says “Asian Style” (it’s just basic crispy pork belly with a caramel sauce, that the author just calls “Asian Sauce”). The sauce I make from this recipe is SO similar in flavour profile to the one at the Vietnamese restaurant (pictured) which is why I believe it might be a Vietnamese sauce. On google I only get Nuoc Cham but this is not Nuoc Cham. The sauce from the recipe consists of: 1/2 cup of brown sugar 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar 1 cup of chicken stock 3 whole star anise 3 tbs of fish sauce A squeeze of lime The sauce is reduced and the consistency is slightly syrupy / sticky (I like to reduce mine extra so it’s more of a thick glaze). I don’t believe the recipe I follow is Authentic as it just says “Asian Style”. I have seen variations of the recipe on google but they all just say “Asian caramel sauce”. Sometimes they include cinnamon, ginger or orange peel. On the Menu from the restaurant they just say “GG’s Sweet Sauce” but I can taste the vinegar and star anise and overall the flavour is VERY very similar. On my last post a few people said it’s Japanese Gyoza sauce (I did have the wrong image though), but it’s definitely not. It’s very tangy from the vinegar, savoury from the fish sauce and sweet/caramelised with notes of star anise. Thank you so much in advance!! <3