Hello!

There used to be this awesome little "Asian" restaurant ran by a Vietnamese couple in Poland, which sadly hasn't survive the lockdowns. They served the absolute best chicken and vegetables with rice I've ever eaten in my entire life. Not that I've traveled so much that I could safely call this dish globally unique, but I've eaten at many Asian restaurants in the central Europe region, had many chicken and veggies with rice combo, as, if you couldn't tell, I'm kinda obsessed, and this one was the only one that was named "Vietnamese", and the flavor was absolutely unique to any such combo that I've ever had.

I wish I had photos, but best what I can do is describe the dish. The veggies consisted of carrots, broccoli, onions, bamboo, bok choy, sometimes bell pepper. The sauce, the star of the show, was brown-turning-orange in color, and the flavor was, in short, amazing. Savory, lemony, a note of ginger I think, fruity but not sweet. It was about as thick as your average store-bought orange juice.

It didn't have any of the usual flavors of soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil. Over time I tried experimenting with doubanjiang, sambal, tamarind paste, five spices, hoisin, nothing got even close to what I was looking for.

I'm pretty sure there's one key ingredient I'm missing because the flavor overpowers everything else.

Does anyone have any ideas and cares to share? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions because I could jug that sauce on its own and be a happy man.

Thanks!