PrintKewpie Mayo: a little disappointing
Ok, so I've read about this stuff on SE several times. Bought it this weekend and tried some smeared on bread with cheese (one of my favorite mayo-delivery systems), and, well, it didn't really do anything for me. It tasted a little bit like mayo mixed with mustard.
Any recipes or suggestions about how to use it? Help me tame the Kewpie!
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
12 Comments:
Kewpie is a Japanese brand of maynnaise and is quite a bit different from Western style mayonnaise.
From wikipedia:
Apart from salads, it is popular with dishes such as okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yakisoba. It is sometimes served with cooked vegetables, or mixed with soy sauce or wasabi and used as dips. In the Tōkai region, it is a frequent condiment on hiyashi chuka (cold noodle salad).
It's often a part of "spicy sauce" in many sushi restaurants (as in "spicy tuna roll").
ccbweb at 3:52PM on 04/14/08
@ccbweb that is correct, do not use it as a sandwich spread, instead use it as a salad dressing mix, excellent for a wasabi mayo or a chipotle mayo. also be sure to use it within a month after opening or else it starts to taste off-setting.
nelson5757 at 4:03PM on 04/14/08
When I was in Tokyo, we had a guide showing us around. We went to a okonomiyaki place. They cooks there had a special tip for the kewpie mayo that squats 3 small streams of mayo at once. My guide was most excited by it and wanted one.
gnomatic at 4:25PM on 04/14/08
My favorite is mixing kewpie mayo with tobiko (the orange flying fish roe) and really good surimi (imitation crab meat). It is essential to find good surimi, the brand I look for is a Korean one and its name is a Korean phonetic spelling of the English word "crab meat". Sometimes I use it to make handrolls with julienned cukes, avocado, and a little sri acha sauce.
It's also good mounded on a salad with avocado and a little lemon.
Sometimes, I just eat the mix straight out of the bowl. But most of time it's worth the wait to make the handrolls.
I think the main difference between Kewpie and American mayo is that it's uber-creamy and rich without any sort of acid (like vinegar or lemon) or salt to cut it.
wookie at 5:09PM on 04/14/08
It's definitely not the kind of mayo that stands up to good bread and cheese. Try a japanese potato salad from a japanese grocery.
Or try it plain on a English or Japanese cucumber. Though my ABSOLUTE favorite since I was a weee lady (taught to me by my aunt) is on a medium boiled egg. I boil and egg (between soft and hard), and for every warm bite, I add a few droplets of tabasco and a squirt of kewpie. I could eat this till I hurl.
pickle at 7:14PM on 04/14/08
My brother brought me back a little bottle from Japan when he was there on business. I was eager to taste it, but I have to admit, I was a little underwhelmed by it, too.
DaveFaris at 8:31PM on 04/14/08
The thing with Kewpie, is it's not regular mayonnaise. It doesn't have quite the same acid tang. It's really not good for the ways most people would normally use regular mayonnaise.
It makes a great spicy mayo w/sriracha or chipotles in adobo and all mashed up. Obviously one is more Asian in flavor, one more Mexican, but the use for them this way - great on chicken sandwiches and the like, can't be denied.
For western flavor, I love mixing about 1/4 Kewpie to 3/4 Hellman's and a shot of shoyu in my egg salad, which is amazing, even if it doesn't sound it.
chisai at 9:21PM on 04/14/08
I like kewpie on grilled corn with lime,chili powder, kraft parm...way better than the elotes you get at the flea markets around here...
HoustonJoe at 10:46AM on 04/15/08
It isn't so much that Kewpie is better than Hellman's (and it's nowhere near as good as a nice home-made mayo)--it is, as everyone has said, different. Consider it a base for a cold sauce.
annien at 12:16PM on 04/15/08
Chisai, that's the way I make my egg salad! Well, with ground black pepper too, but I use shoyu, Kewpie, and Hellman's. =)
I put it on top of my yakisoba too. If I am eating Spam with rice, I put it on the side. I go through a bottle every few weeks.
Cassaendra at 12:24PM on 04/15/08
Ok so i know this is going to sound a little weird but bear with me. My friend james in college was from Tokyo and always had his little rice cooker going in his dorm room. He would fry up thin slices of marinated pork, spoon up a soba bowl full of rice, add chili oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, three or four healthy squeezes of kewpie and crack a raw egg over the whole thing. Then mix vigorously so the hot rice 'cooked' the egg and mayo coated everything. If he was poor and couldn't afford the pork he would eat it with canned tunafish. Either way I swear to god its the best thing to eat when your feeling sad or sick. I ate it for years thinking it was an authentic japanese dish, but i've never found anyone else (japanese or otherwise) who has eaten it!
LizzyB at 9:06PM on 04/15/08
Quick update: I tried a few dots of kewpie on my roasted asparagus. Very tasty. I'm feeling a bit more encouraged. I'm thinking breakfast tomorrow might be rice with an egg and a bit of sriracha/kewpie mixture.
Kerosena at 9:35PM on 04/15/08