There was probably already some chili in there. Or maybe there's something about the Gochujang sauce that would make it not fit as it is. Were you cooking for white people? You're not crazy, but I'm assuming there was some legitimate reason for not using it because it seems like such an obvious thing that there has to be something.
from my recollection the option he went with was literally just a shitload of soy sauce and a whole jug of honey (maybe a quart of it?) and idk maybe we put in some chili powder. I don't remember, it was 3 weeks ago
but today I had to make "sticky shrimp" with basically the same recipe except the guy who was helping me was just like "just take a jug of this sweet chili sauce and add a cup of soy sauce to it" (but the chef looked at him funny when I said that, and he was like 'that's what we always do' about it, lol)
p.s. the sauce tasted better with the honey, the sweet chili sauce in a jug is sweetened with sugar
anyway even if there's chili in it isn't gochujang some kind of fermented shit, it would still add a uniquely korean flavor profile to The Sauce
Yes, Gochujang would be a fantastic addition. It would improve the flavor quite a bit. However, westerners find jalapeno spicy. Gochujang is hotter than what people want out of the sweet option. I worked at a restaurant that kept korean chili powder for this exact purpose because westerners want the ginger type warmth without ginger, but they don't want it to be that spicy. Gochujang will be very popular in the general restaurant circuit in a few years, but it's gonna be in dishes like Nashville Hot chicken (already seen it there) where the spice is a big part of the meal because of its reputation among cooks and the general public.
Idk i think I could add like a little bit of it enough to affect the flavor of the sauce without making it taste too spicy
I'm not disagreeing with you, I think Gochujang would improve the sauce quite a bit. But I could say the same thing about Nashville Hot in a different context. If it's a big enough flavor that you'd have to list it on the menu, you can't just use a small amount because people are expecting it to be hotter than it really would be. Non-spicy people wouldn't buy, spicy people would be upset you didn't put enough in.
As cooks, we don't sell food we sell the idea of food. I don't know where you're from, but I'm assuming it's the west. The highest selling Chinese food in America is General Tso's chicken, a dish made from American takeout restaurants. The only Chinese guy that actually claims inventing it was a 1940s nationalist who had to flee to Taiwan during the revolution. So a shithead. Ironically, people in China also don't like General Tso's.
It's not Chinese food, it's the American idea of what Chinese food is. Sticky chicken/shrimp is probably the General Tso equivalent, a dish that isn't meant to be authentic and is more of a signifier for "vaguely ethnic tasting sugary meat". It's like how most places that sell spaghetti have shitty spaghetti. It's not that they don't know how to make a good spaghetti, it's that the customers want shitty spaghetti.
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