Shanghai Style Sweet & Sour Sauce

Sweet and sour sauce is a term used for a wide range of sauces across many cultures, and can include everything from a sticky barbecue sauce made with apple cider vinegar to thick sauces made with pineapple. “Chinese sweet and sour sauce” encompasses an equally broad range of sauces, but a quick Google search offers little justice to the breadth of regional variation, and all the different ways it can be utilized.

The bright red iterations of Chinese sweet and sour sauce, typically made with ketchup, are often given the most attention. This sauce is delightful in its own right, but it’s worlds apart from the one I grew up with in Shanghai, which is dark and glossy from black vinegar, rock sugar, and cornstarch. It’s generally made to accompany pork ribs, and my mom specifically used tender little riblets to earn its name 糖醋小排 (sweet & sour little pork ribs). These were a quintessential centerpiece of my family’s dinner table when something “celebratory” had happened (as a child, this was usually a birthday or holiday; as an adult, when I was able to take time off school or work to visit). 

Even though my family generally uses this sauce for special occasions, it’s also extremely versatile and a deserved staple in any household. From grilled sardines and thin strips of beef stir-fry, to broiled octopus and roasted chicken thighs, this sauce can be used for so many other preparations beyond just pork ribs. 

To help educate people on the variety of Chinese sweet and sour sauces, I included this Shanghai-style sauce as an ingredient in my nonprofit’s dinner and exhibition series Asian in America. It is a key part of the series’ signature dish, Model Minority. The sauce is drizzled on top of golden veal sweetbreads and a rice gel sheet made with tiny shrimp and garlic chives, providing a layered commentary about the model minority myth and the ongoing fight of Asian Americans to carve an identity for themselves outside the gaze of white America.