Oriental flavor made locally
Soy Vay Takes off on North Coast
What do you name a sauce produced by a
Chinese girl and a Jewish boy?
Soy Vay, of course!
North Coast Today – Kathy Dillon, Lifestyle Editor
October 4, 1983, Times-Standard, Eureka, California
A basic Chinese marinade now available in local markets, Soy Vay is becoming a word-of-mouth hit. Appropriately, that's how the whole story began more than three years ago at an office potluck on the Humboldt State University campus.
Heidi Chien, 31, the business service manager and accountant for University Center, had brought a dish prepared with a sauce of her native Hong Kong. It was a hit with all, including Eddie Scher, 25, the coordinator for productions and concessions for Center Arts.
"Everybody liked it so much," Eddie recalls.
They started out on a small scale - a popular food booth at the North Country Fair in September of 1980. This small success was repeated at several other local events during the following months, including the Humboldt County Fair.
Bottling Soy Vay was the next step
After consulting the regional Department of Health and Services in the Bay Area for the correct procedures, Eddie and Heidi set about selecting a bottle, design and name to put on it. Until then they simply called the sauce a Chinese marinade. They came up with the name Soy Vay and printed it - both in Chinese figures and in Hebrew-like letters - on the bottle.
Bottled Soy Vay made its first appearance in the Arcata Co-op, then Larry's Market in Arcata, the Gourmet Gallery in Eureka and several stores in southern Humboldt County. The price is $2.98 a bottle.
Slowly but surely the bottles are selling. One snag the two young entrepreneurs have encountered has come from a reluctance people have to try something new and from the assumption that Soy Vay is soy sauce.
"It's not a soy sauce," Heidi explains. "It's a very general Chinese recipe in Hong Kong but people aren't exposed to that kind of flavor here."
The basic ingredients in Soy Vay are an imported Hoi Sin sauce plus other spices; a combination of soya bean, garlic, sugar, vinegar, sesame seed and chili. It's good on beef, poultry, fish, eggs and vegetables. One customer, Eddie says, even likes it on hot dogs.
"The problem is to get people to try it. Everybody who tries it, likes it," he says. "I know one woman whose husband will only eat fish if there's Soy Vay on it... We eat it all of the time and never get sick of it."
"I like it on spare ribs," Heidi says. The ribs are marinated in Soy Vay, cooked for 45 minutes and then glazed with honey before serving. Eddie's favorite is foil-wrapped chicken. Chicken cubes are marinated in Soy Vay, wrapped in foil and then cooked quickly in hot oil spiced with ginger and garlic.
The Soy Vay idea is a joint venture in every way. Heidi and Eddie make every business decision together, prepare and bottle the sauce themselves in a Eureka restaurant and then market and distribute it locally - and all while holding down their HSU jobs.
"We don't want to quit our jobs quite yet," Eddie says, grinning. The Soy Vay venture, he adds, is not a money making venture - yet. "Some day we would like to see it become at least a sizable part of our income."
Prepared for future success, they have even trademarked the Soy Vay name. They now hope to find a third person to work on a commission basis to help market the product - something they can only do on weekends and during summer vacations. After thoroughly distributing it on a local level, they plan to take Soy Vay into Bay Area and Oregon markets."But even if we don't make it that big, we'd still make Soy Vay," Eddie says, while Heidi nods her head. "It's been a lot of fun."
