When Soy Sauce is Not Soy Sauce

Growing up with something called "Soy Sauce" in a yellow bottle, I never used the stuff again after returning from Japan the first time in 2000. "Shoyu" is what it's called here and Kikkomon makes the best stuff. One is able to find Kikkoman now in almost any store in the world. It's surprising to learn that such a large company can continually keep the quality high, with just plain regular soy sauce far outselling any other of the 30 different types of soy sauce they make. It's products can be found in many of Japan's finest restaurants. The same company was making renown soy sauce in Japan as far back as 400 years ago. While made of soy, soy sauce also contains wheat, and by ratio changes the nature of the sauce. It is also fermented, but that shouldn't be surprising since really the history of cooking is the story of controlled fermentation. Soy sauce is an interesting product in another way: Like fine wine or cheese, it can represent many different flavors at once. It's one of the most complex tastes known to man; containing (as counted by professionals, I suppose) over 230 different flavors. Vanilla, smoke, etc. I would just say it's salty and tastes good. Please if you are not already using Kikkoman (or some other real type of soy sauce), go out and treat yourself. Some notes on care: Soy sauce doesn't last forever, a month after opening the sauce starts to lose flavor. Store opened bottles in the fridge but I would recommend for connivence keeping a bit outside the fridge in a small container. (Here, they come in many different styles all made not to drip.)