INGREDIENTS LISTED BELOW
These are the ingredients I have tested and like. I listed only the ones I have used in my blog, giving a brief description on each and where to get them.
Full disclosure: I’m not paid by any of the makers.
HERE’S THE RUB
Finding and cooking with the right Asian ingredients, sauces and condiments can get challenging even for those of us who grew up in the culture.
In Chinese food, using the wrong chili sauce could alter a traditional dish completely. This works both ways because you can then tweak some ingredients and get a completely new and exciting dish of your own. But if you want certain dishes to taste authentic–as the famous Taiwan cooking teacher Fu Pei Mei once taught me–there are some sauces that she insisted we use.
Thankfully many well known labels for Asian ingredients are marketed worldwide nowadays whether we are in Sydney, London, Paris, or DC. In U.S. big cities with mixed communities, we can find even the most esoteric ingredients in our many ethnic–Indian, Halal, Korean, Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Filipino and Chinese–stores and supermarkets.
Because the DC Chinese diaspora is so diverse–from so many different Chinese provinces–I have discovered Chinese ingredients and vegetables that I’d never eaten before. Every province, because of their geography and climate differences, have their own indigenous favorites that another might have never seen. Add to this, many supermarkets also cater to other ethnic groups. Surprisingly, some stores here offer an even greater variety of ingredients than what would be available in each place of origin.
INGREDIENTS
OILS
Sesame oil
CONDIMENTS
Sauces
Fish Sauce
Soy sauce, general comment
—Soy sauce
–Dark soy sauce
–Sweet dark soy sauce
Sha Cha Jiang
Oyster sauce
Thai sweet chill sauce
Vinegar
–Sweetened black vinegar
–Chinese black vinegar
Pastes
Black bean sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sesame Paste
Thai Red Curry Paste
Wines
Chinese cooking wines
Others
Coconut milk
HERB AND SPICES
Candlenuts
Curry leaves
Curry powder
Cinnamon
Galangal
Kaffir leaves
Lemongrass
Star anise
Turmeric
PRESERVED VEGETABLES
Tamarind
Zha cai
DRIED VEGETABLES
Dried mushroomJujube
Snow fungus
DRIED SEAFOOD AND MEAT
Chinese sausage
Dried scallop
SOY PRODUCTS
Bean curd skin
VEGETABLES
Choy sum, cai xin
Gailan
Pandan leaves
NOODLES
Bean thread noodles
Guan miao noodles
Rice Vermicelli