Soy Sauce Anyone?

Who doesn't love soy sauce aka shoyu?  Pair it with wasabi and sushi.  It's the main ingredient in Teriyaki sauce,  Non-Asians pour it straight on their white rice.  (If you're Asian and you do this, consider your Asian card revoked.)  Soy sauce and mayonnaise mixed together makes the best dip for steamed broccoli.  Soy sauce is almost as versatile as salt. 

But did you know that it works great on burns and mosquito bites.  Yep.  I was surprised too until I read it in the LA Times today.  Apparently a  reader was singing the praises of shoyu after she burned the tips of her fingers, she could see the blisters forming and soaked her fingers in soy sauce.  The next day, there were no blisters and just 2 red marks.  This same reader decided to try it with a mosquito bite.  Lo and behold, the bite didn't itch or swell up.

Imagine the potential for soy sauce.  I have visions of first aid kits filled with packets of Kikkoman.  If you're out camping, dad screams out,  "honey, I got stung by a bee.  Bring out the shoyu and while you're at it, can you marinade the chicken for the bbq!!"  Or you're watching TV and House is working a tough case and tells his team, "Thirteen is right, break out soy sauce 500 cc's in a saline drip, stat!!!"

Or you're at the movies and Edward just bites the young hottie in the neck.  Jacob comes to her rescue with a bottle of shoyu and pours it on her neck and the fang marks disappear. 

Then comes the backlash from the concerned public.   Too much soy sauce for medicinal purposes is really bad for your health.  There's estrogen in soy bean so soy sauce will cause man-boobs.  Instead of coming home with glitter and perfume on their clothes, husbands will have the smell of soy sauce.  How convenient to tell the wife or gf, I was out having sushi.

So what is soy sauce?  It's soy bean fermented with a mold to form a paste then water and salt are added.  Pretty simple stuff.  It's also has 10 times the antioxidants of a same serving as wine but sipping on soy sauce is kind of gross unless you really like salt.

I'm not sure where I'm headed with this discussion of soy sauce only to say that once again, the Chinese came up with another awesome invention that may one day be the stuff that replaces
DEET and burn cream.  Enjoy your soy!!