Soy Vay

My son from Chicago had brought us, some years ago, a wonderful product called Soy Vay

A basic Chinese marinade now available in local markets, Soy Vay is becoming a word-of-mouth hit. Appropriately, that's how the whole story began at an office potluck on the Humboldt State University campus.

Heidi Chien, 31, the business service manager and accountant for University Center, had brought a dish prepared with a sauce of her native Hong Kong. It was a hit with all, including Eddie Scher, 25, the coordinator for productions and concessions for Center Arts.

"Everybody liked it so much," Eddie recalls.

They started out on a small scale - a popular food booth at the North Country Fair in September of 1980. This small success was repeated at several other fairs.

After consulting the regional Department of Health and Services in the Bay Area for the correct procedures, Eddie and Heidi set about selecting a bottle, design and name to put on it. Until then they simply called the sauce a Chinese marinade. They came up with the name Soy Vay and printed it - both in Chinese figures and in Hebrew-like letters - on the bottle.

Bottled Soy Vay made its first appearance in the Arcata Co-op, then Larry's Market in Arcata, the Gourmet Gallery in Eureka and several stores in southern Humboldt County and the price was $2.98 a bottle.

"It's not a soy sauce," Heidi explains. "It's a very general Chinese recipe in Hong Kong but people aren't exposed to that kind of flavor here."

The basic ingredients in Soy Vay are an imported Hoi Sin sauce plus other spices; a combination of soya bean, garlic, sugar, vinegar, sesame seed and chili. It's good on beef, poultry, fish, eggs and vegetables. One customer, Eddie says, even likes it on hot dogs.

We wanted some and knew we couldn’t find such a wondrous product in Southern Ontario, so I contacted the factory and had some sent. They have several flavors now so we chose some and had six bottles sent. The price at that time was $5.00 a bottle, but due to the current exchange rate, shipping from California etc. the six bottles cost about $80 to deliver. We bit the bullet, it’s great stuff!

A week or two later, my wife arrives at my office (for lunch) with the news that she has just returned from the little gourmet market down the street where they have Soy Vey products on sale.

I never asked anyone at Soy Vay if their products were available in Canada, I just assumed they weren’t. They were $6.99 Cdn. a bottle.

I was not a happy camper!