Asian Cooking Staples

Tea-a-Maria

I'm looking to cook more Asian food (Thai and Chinese mostly, I'm not an Indian fan) and I plan on going to an Asian supermarket to stock up on staples. It's a bit of a trek, so I want to make sure I have all the basics. I'm not looking for perishables, but more the key sauces, pastes and the like you should have in your cupboard. So far I have the following on my list:

Soy sauce
Oyster Sauce
Thai fish sauce
Mirin
Tamarind paste

What else would you recommend? Thanks in advance.

Uncle_moe

Shaoxing wine
Hoisin Sauce
MSG
Whole Star Anise
Jasmin Rice
Glutinous Rice
Sesame seeds
Shrimp paste


Japanse
Pickled Ginger
Udon Noodles
Soba Noodles
Bonito Flakes
Kewpie Mayo
Yuzu Juice
Miso (Light and dark)
Wasabi paste


The list is endless but these are a good start I think. I'm sure I forgot loads of staples though

the beer revolu

Preserved black beans.

homemadecider

rice noodles
light soy sauce
fresh ginger root (peel it and freeze it in 1-inch chunks)
palm sugar
rice wine vinegar
chinese five spice powder

also get a couple of those nice chinese porcelain spoons, everything tastes better off them!

Minder

Kecap manis
Sriracha chilli sauce
Chinchiang black vinegar
Hoisin sauce
Shrimp paste
Toasted sesame oil
Fish sauce - Thai or Vietnamese if you can get it
Chilli paste - Lao Gan Ma
Chilli bean paste
Garlic and chilli bean paste

Tea-a-Maria

There are a lot more Asian cooking staples than I thought Keep them coming!

rubadub

Tea-a-Maria wrote: »

There are a lot more Asian cooking staples than I thought Keep them coming!

You might need a vote/poll or people to list in order of most important first.

Mine were mostly already mentioned,

soy sauce (pretty obvious)
ginger & garlic puree, or both separate.
hoisin sauce,
sesame oil
star anise,
potato starch for thickening

Mellor

Tea-a-Maria wrote: »

There are a lot more Asian cooking staples than I thought Keep them coming!

There's a lot of cuisines, so there's lot of staples. But no cuisine uses the all.
There's no point buying everything listed if you aren't going to use them. Find you initial recipes and get what you need, add to it as required.


FWIW, the staples I currently have are;
Sticky Rice
Coconut milk
Curry paste
palm sugar
Shrimp paste
Sriracha
Kewpie/Japanese Mayo
Pickled Ginger
rice wine vinegar

El_Duderino 09

Exactly what Mellor said. Pick 5 recipes that you actually want to cook and get what you need for them. Otherwise you'll spend a small fortune and never use half of it.

Laranian

Tea-a-Maria! I must tell you that you should also try Indian and pakistani food. It is one of the most popular and delious food, i ever tated. Indian and pakustabni food are my most favroite perosnlly, They have very different sort of dishes, and spices. I always love top eat to Indian and Pakistani resturants where i visit to any of a new place.

clever user name

Chinese food:

Shaoxing rice wine
Rice wine vinegar
Chill bean paste
Msg
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce (light and dark)
5 spice
Star anise
Dried chilies
Fermented black beans

That is pretty much all you will need!!

Maybe some of the premade and shaped dough if you want to make dumplings, really handy!!

Cakeboyee20

Try and stay away from MSG, heard bad things about this, but i suppose like anything, good things are usally bad for you.

Faith

Cakeboyee20 wrote: »

Try and stay away from MSG, heard bad things about this, but i suppose like anything, good things are usally bad for you.

The claims around MSG have all been debunked. It's no more problematic than normal table salt.

homemadecider

Cakeboyee20 wrote: »

Try and stay away from MSG, heard bad things about this, but i suppose like anything, good things are usally bad for you.

MSG is a naturally-ocurring amino acid in seaweed that is used as a flavour enhancer. There's nothing sinister or unhealthy about it.

rubadub

MSG goes under many different names, so if a place says "MSG free" it might well be free of the pure chemical version but might have something else which is essentially the same.

Its like cereal companies list ingredients like "malt extract, sugar, honey, maltose, glucose, glucose syrup, dextrose" -all forms of sugar.

Some Italian food is naturally high in MSG. I liked a study where they made MSG free Chinese food and many said they got "MSG symptoms" from it.

Also some treat it like its some brand new headshop sinister drug that should be outlawed -meanwhile their grannies have been using knorr aromat (loaded with MSG) for 50 years and they probably suffered no ill effects whenever eating her food.

Minder

http://luckypeach.com/the-mother-sauces-of-thailand/

David Chang's Lucky Peach have a short article on the Mother Sauces of Thailand.