Sesame oil
There’s regular sesame oil, and there is black sesame oil. Can you tell the difference if the bottles don’t give you the hint? Two friends and I taste tested…
Browsing Category Ingredients
Chinese cooking wine
Chinese cooking wines are inexpensive versions of drinking wines and are used liberally in braising, for sauces, or just to splash into a stir fry in place of water to…
Chinese Black Vinegar
The favored vinegar for Chinese cooking is black vinegar which is from Chinkiang, a city in Jiangsu province. It has a rich, smoky flavor which can be substituted by a…
Sugar
In Chinese and many Southeast Asian sweet snacks and desserts, we prefer to use rock sugar or palm sugar instead of regular granulated white or brown sugar. Ping Tong, or…
Kaffir leaves
Kaffir leaves or kaffir lime leaves are easily identifiable by its double, figure 8 shaped leaves. Used for its delicate, fragrant, lemony flavor, it’s their perfume you smell in Thai…
Thai red curry paste
The paste for Thai red curry is made by blending fresh chili, garlic, shallot, lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal combined with ground cumin, cardomom and coriander seed. Use it as…
Sesame paste
Sesame Paste or zhi ma jiang, made from roasted sesame seed, is used to make sauce for Liang Mian cold noodles.