[norcalbaker59]

One of Ken Hom's bbq sauce recipes. He was raised in the US, but did a series for BBC. This recipe calls for "cornflour" which is corn starch. In England, they call corn starch, corn flour.

If you want to reproduce flavor similar to a bbq sauce from a Chinese restaurant, I would recommend Chinese soy sauce as soy sauce from the various Asian countries all have distinctly different flavors. I was raised on Kikkoman Japanese soy sauce --my Korean and Chinese friends hate Kikkoman. My Japanese cousins will use both Japanese an Korean soy sauce because a lot of Japanese dishes evolved from Korean cuisine. I'll use Korean soy sauce for Korean dishes, but I use Kikkoman in all other Asian dishes because I'm so familiar with that flavor-- which is a kinder way of saying I don't like Chinese soy sauce.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/19/ken-hom-chilli-pork-spare-ribs-recipe

 

[norcalbaker59]

I forgot to mention two things about soy sauce:
1. Lee Kum Kee Is the Chinese brand most most Asians use at home. Avoid La Choy like its the plague!!! Its not real soy sauce. It's made using a chemical process instead of traditional fermentation methods. While we Asians will disagree on which country makes the best soy sauce, we are united and unanimous in that we all think La Choy is the worst tasting "soy sauce" on the market.

2. If you can't find Chinese soy sauce, then a Japanese soy sauce type called Tamari is probably your next best choice. Tamari is made in the traditional Chinese method, so the flavor profile will be most similar to Chinese soy sauce. And Tamari (San J Brand) is stocked by most grocery store chains.

In Chinese cooking, light soy sauce is the standard. Asian recipes frequently indicate either light or dark soy sauce. If the recipe does not indicate type of soy sauce, then light soy sauce is probably the best choice.