Chinese Pantry Essentials - What to Buy at a Chinese Supermarket

so this week we want to talk about Chinese pantry essentials I figured it'd be pretty boring to stay here and have you just watch me hold stuff so instead we'll do a bit of a Chinese supermarket walkthrough before we do though a couple basic seasonings that you should be able to pick up anywhere almost every Chinese household I have one of these next to their stove filled with salt sugar and cornstarch these three ingredients are used in almost every dish whether it's for marinades seasonings or sauces another basic thing to have is white pepper while it's around Chinese cuisine doesn't use so much black pepper white pepper is usually the go-to the most common aromatics I think you could guess garlic ginger green onion when used as an aromatic it's most common to use only the white part of the green onion in addition other common herbs and aromatics are cilantro leek white onion and Chinese celery Chinese celery is a bit more pungent and flavorful than Western celery but our subs in a pinch lastly I know most supermarkets nowadays carry toasted sesame oil note that this isn't a frying oil common being peanut in Chinese cooking but rather for finishing a dish now for the stuff that's best bought at a Chinese supermarket the other day I was back home in America so for maximum international relevance we're going to a Chinese grocer down in Philadelphia's Chinatown when going to a Chinese supermarket the first thing you might notice are like the mountain of different sauces Asian cuisines are the Masters of fermentation and about 90 percent of these are different ingredients fermented in interesting ways number one ingredient as I'm sure you could guess is soy sauce there's two types of soy sauce light soy sauce which is sort of the standard soy sauce and dark soy sauce which is aged for longer dark soy sauce has a touch deeper flavor but it's used mostly for color light soy sauce has more salinity and if you can find it we kind of like this brand epen second most important ingredient the algae Oh aka Shaoxing wine Jojo and Xiao Qing wine are actually different grades of Wong Joe a classic sort of rice wine most common in China is this cheapo stuff which aggressively breaks the old rule in Western cooking that you should only cook with stuff you drink Xiao Qing is a nicer one though you can tell a lot of stuff abroad that's called Xiao Jing's actually just Liao Joe if you want to make sure that it's a nicer one get something that says it's wadi al next up vinegar well Chinese white rice vinegar is a touch more mild than Western white vinegar be sure to pick up this sort of chunsu or dark vinegar it's aged and sort of like the Chinese equivalent of balsamic if you can try to find a dark vinegar from either Xiang XI or gen Jiang which are generally the best and of course be sure to pick up a stir sauce nowadays it's extremely difficult to find an oyster sauce made from the old school method of boiling down Easter's but Lee Kum Kee is a solid enough brand if you're cooking citron food peach and Devon Jiang or chili bean pastes absolutely critical some brands are salty garbage but we spotted this brand drenching pie that we sometimes use in China so pick him up if you can lastly another ingredient that we use quite a bit as stock concentrate sometimes these chicken flavored ones are quite salty so if you're working with a dish that can handle a touch of seafood flavor we often opt for these scallop or abalone sauce concentrates instead obviously though homemade stalks are almost always better five spice which is a combination of star anise cinnamon fennel seed cloves Sichuan peppercorn and often other seasonings is another useful ingredient to have around while some english-language recipes seem to overuse five-spice it undeniably has its place if you're doing such one cooking Sichuan peppercorns a critical ingredient I couldn't find any nice-looking peppercorns from this Chinese supermarket which seems to be a common refrain abroad so picking some up from online spice shops might be a decent route to take besides these spices are most commonly used in Chinese cooking when poaching or braising just buy these on an as-needed basis some common guys would be dried bay leaf star anise cinnamon clove fennel seed and black cardamom Chinese cuisine commonly uses three types of chilies mild paprika chilies which are used fresh and cumin red and green Arjun cow aka Sichuan chilies which are great for color and fragrance and Chao Tian Xiao aka heaven facing chilies which are great because they're spicy as all hell argent Cal and Xiao Jian Xiao are both used fresh dried and pickled the only disappointment that I had was that this supermarket only carried dried arjen cow and fresh and pickled chatty Angele paprika chilies meanwhile were nowhere to be seen now recommended subs for Arjun cow are arbol chilies for a challenge ow we'd go with Thai Birdseye for green mild chili some Anaheim's would be perfect and for red mild chilies depending on where you live unfortunately red bell pepper might be your only realistic option dried seafoods one of the hallmarks of coastal Chinese cuisine and there's certainly a ton of options to choose from most common would likely be dried shrimp and dried scallops both of which pack a nice punch of umami on the same token dried shitake mushrooms one of my favorite ingredients after reconstituting dried mushrooms or shellfish they're leftover waters basically like concentrated whoo mommy juice use that liquid just like you would stock and before we finish up here no trip to a Chinese supermarket would be complete without the ever-popular Lau Gama chili sauce using dipping sauces and even in noodle soups in stir fries so I know this was in the comprehensive list but it should be enough to get started for a more detailed discussion check out her at the link in the description box so we'll be back next week with a neo recipe video in the meantime stay tuned and 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Channel: Chinese Cooking Demystified

Views: 269,911

Keywords: chinese ingredient guide, chinese ingredients to buy, chinese pantry essentials, chinese supermarket walkthrough, what to buy at a chinese supermarket, chinese supermarket, asian supermarket, basic asian ingredients, basic chinese ingredients, chinese food (cuisine), chinese cooking demystified

Id: hdVIMD50wuw

Length: 6min 31sec (391 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 05 2018