SHOYU TARE

Shoyu tare is made of mainly soy sauce. It colors the broth, so it’s not used quite as prevalently as shio. You can use an everyday soy like Kikkoman (I do), or if you have a more complex shoyu within your reach, try it. It’s like cooking with good wine: the better the wine, the better the sauce. And all the other things that play in concert with the soy—the niboshi, the oil, the stock, the noodle—will enhance that flavor.

There are two ways to make this tare. I prefer the second because it’s cleaner, but the first uses the Soy Marinade from the Rolled Pork Belly (Chashu) and has a depth that the second does not. I recommend using HonDashi, a store-bought, freeze-dried dashi with a touch of MSG, because it distributes the flavors of kombu and bonito into the soy-based tare much better, unlike the shio. HonDashi can be found in any Asian market or online.