Tempeh

Fried to a shard, then lacquered. The sugar sets on it like glass.

Two roasted legumes; the sauce and the block share the same pyrazines.

Lean protein needs fat, and coconut brings sweetness the mould lacks.

The mould reads flat without heat. Chilli is the usual fix, but bacem uses palm sugar instead.

Acid at the end lifts the earthiness off the floor of the dish.

Marinate before frying — the porous block takes it right through.

Sour fruit against a savoury mould, the way vinegar works on liver.

Smoke on a lean protein reads as cured; this is the tempeh-bacon con.

Sugar plus smoke plus salt is a bacon impression the mould can carry.

A fried mould block has no moisture. Raw paste puts wet and heat back.

Two soy moulds stacked. The koji sugar fills the hole rhizopus leaves.

Both taste of long time in a warm room. The garlic supplies the sweetness.

Fermented bean on fermented bean; roast both and they converge exactly.