Spirit of Aloha | Features | March/April 2003

GET SHOYU?
By Len Takushi

Move over, mayonnaise. Catch you later, ketchup. In Hawai'i, shoyu is condiment king

The scenario:
You're in charge of this year's company picnic, and you've got a delicious spread laid out under the shade at Ala Moana Beach Park. You've got the hot dogs and hamburgers. You've got the sushi and salad. You've got …
"Hey! Where's the shoyu?!?"
You spin around and see a co-worker-or better yet, your boss-recklessly sweeping aside bottles of ketchup, relish, mayonnaise, mustard …
"How come you don't have shoyu?" he barks, shooting you a frown.
You explain to him that you brought hot dogs. Who uses shoyu on hot dogs?
"I use shoyu on my hot dogs!"
You brought hamburgers.
"And I use shoyu on my hamburgers, too!"
Maybe he should partake of some sushi …
"I need SHOYU to eat sushi!"
Maybe you'd better head to the nearest supermarket.

If Missouri is the "Show Me" state, Hawai'i is the Shoyu state. "Shoyu is very important in Hawai'i," says renowned local chef Sam Choy. "On the Mainland, people use salt as their key source of sodium. In Hawai'i, people use shoyu instead."
"I use shoyu a lot," says Glenn Kawachi, a Waipahu resident and avid cook.

What does he use it for?

Kawachi pauses to consider the question, then shrugs his shoulders.

"Everything," he says, matter-of-factly.

On the Mainland, shoyu is better known as soy sauce. Its chief ingredients are water, wheat, soybeans, salt and sugar. As a condiment, its main quality is its ability to harmonize and enhance the flavors of foods. "It's a good complement that brings out the flavor in foods," explains Brian Tanigawa, president/director of Aloha Shoyu Co. "Without shoyu, I don't think local people would enjoy food as much."

Indeed, Island residents of all ethnicities have a strong affinity for this salty-sweet enhancer. They use it as a marinade or cooking ingredient; shoyu chicken and shoyu pork, for example, are common dishes in many Hawai'i households. They use it as a dipping sauce for sushi, sashimi (raw fish) and even green mangoes. Shoyu is poured on everything from eggs, rice and tofu to fish, saimin and Spam. It even mixes well with other condiments, like mayonnaise, mustard and wasabi.

"I use shoyu for pretty much all my meat products, especially when I want to barbecue," says 'Ewa Beach resident Jonette Fraticelli. "I don't know if this is weird or not, but I even like to mix shoyu with mayonnaise as a dressing for salads."

No, that's not weird. Putting shoyu on ice cream would be weird. Also, we wouldn't recommend pouring shoyu on pancakes or shave ice. Then again, whoever thought we'd be covering Gummy Bears with li hing powder? (But that's another story.)

Although widely known as a Japanese product, shoyu actually originated in China. Discovered more than 2,500 years ago, shoyu is regarded as one of the world's oldest condiments. According to the official Kikkoman Web site (Kikkoman is the most widely recognized shoyu manufacturer in the United States), people in prehistoric Asia preserved their meat and fish in the winter by packing them in salt. The liquid that leached from the preserved meat was used as a base for broths and
seasonings.

The first known product to resemble shoyu can be traced to the sixth century B.C., when many Buddhists in China practiced vegetarianism and developed a meatless seasoning consisting of a salty paste of fermented grains, including soybeans. A visiting Japanese Zen priest came across this seasoning and, after returning to Japan, began making his own version of the product. Over the years, the Japanese expertly modified the ingredients and brewing techniques. Today, according to Kikkoman statistics, the average person in Japan consumes about a gallon-and-a-half of shoyu annually.

While Japan-based Kikkoman is a popular brand in Hawai'i, it is Aloha Shoyu-one of only two local manufacturers-that dominates the Island market. Aloha Shoyu Co. was formed in 1946 by five local Japanese families who opened a manufacturing plant in Kalihi on the island of O'ahu. Still a family-run business, Aloha Shoyu currently has about 50 employees at its offices in Pearl City and bottling facility at Campbell Industrial Park on O'ahu.

The other local shoyu manufacturer is Club Shoyu, which was founded in the 1960s and distributes its product throughout the Big Island and on parts of Maui. It's a small operation, with only two full-time employees. "A lot of people think that Aloha and Kikkoman are too salty, while our shoyu is 'just right,'" claims company president Bruce Yamada. "Of course, everyone has different tastes."

For its part, Aloha Shoyu hasn't strayed much from its original recipe of more than 55 years ago. "There may have been some adjustments with respect to additional preservatives, but the base formula is primarily the same," says Tanigawa, a former pharmacist, whose grandfather, Harry T. Tanigawa, was one of the company's founders. "We don't want to get too cute with a proven product. The board of directors would probably give me the boot if I tried!"

In 1997, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin conducted a taste test featuring five Hawai'i food and wine experts, including celebrated chefs Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong. Twenty different soy sauces were sampled. Kikkoman was deemed to have the more "aggressive" flavor-"saltier and sharper, with a slight tartness" was how the writer put it-while Aloha was described as being "soft and simple, with low acid and a caramel aroma."

In our informal survey, four of five shoyu tasters preferred the Aloha brand. "Aloha is sweeter, and I just like the taste," says Melvin Anduha of Wai'anae. Adds Glenn Kawachi, "[Aloha] tastes better. It has more flavor."

Simeli Taulealea is another Aloha Shoyu advocate. "Kikkoman is more bitter, and I like the taste of Aloha," says the 'Aiea resident. "Even if somebody blindfolded me and made me taste the two, I can taste the difference."

Taulealea's daughter, Sabrina, currently lives in Japan, where there are more than 2,000 different shoyu brands. Even then, says Taulealea, "I always send her Aloha Shoyu. She can't find it up there, and it's like every month I have to send her a gallon!"
All of this, naturally, isn't a surprise to Tanigawa. "I think we have a decent flavor profile that the local people have adopted," he says. "It's a salty-sweet taste, and it's part of the formula that's worked for us. We use real sugar

in our products, rather than substitute corn syrup. There's a significant expense to that, but being able to produce locally helps from a price standpoint. We don't incur shipping costs."

When it comes to distributing shoyu on the Mainland, however, Tanigawa admits Aloha Shoyu is at a disadvantage. Kikkoman has manufacturing facilities in California and Wisconsin, and another rival manufacturer, Yamasa, brews its shoyu in Salem, Ore. However, Tanigawa says his company has plans to open a production facility on the West Coast, a move that could boost its sales on the Mainland significantly.

The long-range goal, according to Tanigawa, is to gradually make Aloha Shoyu a global company. "What we want to do is take the company to the next level," he says. "And maybe the generation after ours will be able to take it a step further."

Over the years, Aloha Shoyu has diversified its product line to include a barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce and vinegars. Eighty percent of the company's sales, however, is derived from the shoyu products, including a shoyu that contains about 30 percent less sodium than Aloha's regular shoyu.

Aloha Shoyu seems to be the shoyu of choice when it comes to making poke, a popular Island delicacy made from chunks of raw fish, chopped veggies and other ingredients. "All the fish markets here buy our shoyu to make their poke," says Tanigawa. "There are even Japanese tourists who buy our shoyu to take home; there's apparently a poke recipe book in Japan that specifically mentions Aloha Shoyu as the name brand to use. That's really flattering."

It's no wonder, then, that Aloha Shoyu is a major sponsor of the Sam Choy Poke Festival, an annual event highlighted by a poke recipe contest, featuring amateur and professional chefs vying for cash prizes. (Held in conjunction with the Aloha Festivals, this year's event will take place at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel on the island of Hawai'i, Sept. 12-14.)

Sam Choy's smiling image emblazoned on the company's delivery trucks makes it clear that Aloha Shoyu is his shoyu of choice. Choy, who has his own weekly television show, Sam Choy's Kitchen, says he uses Aloha Shoyu exclusively in his recipes. "We use about eight gallons of shoyu in our restaurants every week," he declares.

He smiles. "Of course, the key is that it's not how much shoyu you use, it's how you use it.

"I know one thing: Hawai'i would be a very sad place without shoyu."

For more than just a taste of shoyu:
To learn more about Hawai'i's condiment king, check out these Web sites:
Aloha Shoyu: www.alohashoyu.com
Kikkoman: www.kikkoman.com

Len Takushi has written several Adventures in Dining pieces for SPIRIT OF ALOHA, the most recent being his review of The Ship's Tavern, which ran in the November/December 2002 issue.

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