Mentsuyu

Like so many Japanese flavors, mentsuyu starts with soy sauce, mirin, sake, and dashi. From there, it’s often a soup base — particularly for soba or udon — or dipping sauce for noodles, but it can further be used for hot pot, oden, as a marinade, or really for flavoring whatever you want.

Mentsuyu is probably most famous as a dipping condiment for noodles, both hot and cold. Depending on the dish or your own personal taste, mentsuyu for dipping can be in its completely concentrated form, or still diluted somewhat to be a little less rich. When used as a soup base, mentsuyu is diluted further so as to not overwhelm the bowl of other ingredients.

For store-bought mentsuyu, there are concentrated varieties plus pre-diluted options. When cooking with concentrated mentsuyu, different uses require different dilution levels. Usually, these different dilution options will be mentioned on the bottle.

Of course, when in doubt, it’s easy to make at home too! Simply simmer the ingredients down until they’re at the desired reduction. From there, a jar can usually last about a month in the fridge.

You’ll find premade mentsuyu — both concentrated and pre-diluted varieties — at Uwajimaya in our grocery department, or the ingredients to make your own!