How to start cooking Chinese... outside of China (feat. Bangkok's Chinatown)
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- How to set up your kitchen to cook Chinese food! It's always a little bit of a process to set things up to cook a new cuisine (so that you're not spending a fortune buying a ton of random ingredients on Amazon or whatever), and in this video we wanted to cover the absolute basics of what you need to get started.
0:00 - The seven things you need to cook Chinese food
1:00 - 1, Fire
2:52 - 2, Rice
3:35 - 3, Salt
4:01 - 4, Oil
4:50 - 5, Fermented Sauce(s)
6:03 - 6, Vinegar/Wine
6:36 - 7, Tea/Dried Goods
7:31 - Is this a complete list?
A MORE COMPLETE LIST
We wanted to keep this video to basically the barest essentials. We also decided to cut out a few ingredients that we figured you might already have in your kitchen (e.g. cornstarch). To be ready to cook a wider range of Chinese food, it'd be helpful to at least have some of these as well:
BASICS: Salt, Granulated Sugar, MSG, Chicken Bouillon Powder, Cornstarch (or preferably a root vegetable starch like potato)
RICE/FLOUR/NOODLES: Jasmine rice, 00 Flour, Rice Noodles (dried Vietnamese rice noodles can work well), Noodles
OILS: Peanut oil, Caiziyou (virgin rapeseed oil) or Indian Mustard Seed Oil, Toasted Sesame Oil
SAUCES: Mianchi ("Bean Sauce") or Huangjiang or Red Miso, Pixian Doubanjiang ("Chili Bean Paste"), Oyster Sauce, Soy Sauce, Dark Soy Sauce, Lao Gan Ma, Tianmianjiang ("Sweet Bean Paste"), Hoisin sauce, Chu Hou Paste
OTHER FERMENTED INGREDIENTS: Fermented Bean Curd (white, red too if possible), Douchi (Chinese black beans), Yacai, Suancai
VINEGAR/WINE: Chencu ("Shanxi Mature Vinegar") or Xiangcu ("Chinkiang Vinegar"), Shaoxing wine (preferably unsalted)
SPICES: Cinnamon, clove, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel seed, star anise, white pepper, Tsaoko ("Chinese black Cardamom"), Chenpi (dried and aged tangerine peel), licorice root, sand ginger
DRIED INGREDIENTS: Dried shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, dried scallops, wood ear mushrooms, dried kelp
Eventually, we'll do the whole UA-camr thing, make an Amazon storefront & link it here for your reference (generally not recommended to buy Chinese ingredients on Amazon abroad, as the price is often 2-3 times what you'd pay at a Chinese supermarket). If you're USA based, you can also find a large number of these product on Weee:
www.sayweee.com/en
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And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
/ chinesecookingdemystified
Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): • Live Stream: Favourite... - Навчання та стиль
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. Definitely do check out the complete list in the description box. While we only talked about a dozen or so ingredients in the video, to *truly* set up your kitchen to smoothly cook Chinese food will likely take a few more additions (the final list clocked in at 43 ingredients, though a standard western kitchen would likely already contain ~10 of them).
2. Bangkok is an interesting place to shop for Chinese food, as a good 99 Ranch or T&T has a better selection than the similar sort of grocer we have here (王中王, the second place we went to in the video). But there’s also a massive old Chinatown which has a *ton* of Teochew and Cantonese ingredients, a large Japanese population (Japanese cuisine has a good hunk of ingredient crossover with coastal Chinese), and not to mention Thai produce is extremely similar to Yunnan produce. It’s a super fascinating place to shop for sure. Of course, on the Chinese ingredient front, the biggest draw is that we can Taobao here…
3. Regarding stoves, unfortunately the Iwatani ZA-3HP is currently out of stock on Amazon (feels like everything is out of stock on Amazon these days?). They carry the VA-30 right now which I can’t personally vouch for, but has a similar heat output and *appears* like it can also hold a round bottomed wok without issue.
4. Apologies for the slightly rough audio when Steph was on the main road.
That’s all I can think of for now. We’ll be releasing a quick little video on which Chinese items need to be refrigerated or not in a couple days, then next week we’ll be back with another proper cooking video. Apologies for the slight shift in content during this time moving countries - we knew that it’d be intense, but we actually kind of underestimated the intensity haha.
Moving to a new apartment can be stressful, I can't imagine what it's like moving to a new country. Take all the time you need, we will be patiently waiting for you!
I believe several cast iron and steel wok rings will work on Iwatani tabletop stoves - pro tip though, try to cook outside, many American overhead kitchen fans SUCK at SUCKING
I'm good to go except for the peanut oil. Peanut oil is super expensive where I am (Philippines). It is even more expensive than olive oil. But then again, all kinds of oil, even the much dreaded palm oil is expensive these days!
@@person35790 Yeah a good subset of apartment hoods in the USA are designed by a psychopath or something. Recirculating the exhaust *inside* the apartment? What sort of genius thought of that one?
Still, if you can cook a steak, you can stir fry for sure.
@@lecheflan4777 Yeah just use what makes sense :) Just suggestions is all
As an ADHD person who struggles with organization and planning and avoids things that I don't have experience with and think I'll be bad, at this is the best kind of video.
Just the basics.
less is more
Route number 3 for electric only people -- get an induction wok burner. It works via induction like a stove, but has a round bottom for a wok. There are pretty cheap ones (and also very expensive ones). I have gas, so I haven't used it but I hear they work well.
Yeah the reason we hesitate telling people to go that route in a home kitchen is that finding a wok that's the right *fit* for burner can apparently be a challenge. There were people on the Discord that chewed through 5-6 woks trying to find something snug enough. Also, they're expensive - something like $200 for a Nuwave (the cheapest on the market). At that point, you might as well just invest in an outdoor wok burner set-up like, say, Kenji has.
If you can get one that's a good fit for your wok, of course, they can work like a charm. But I've usually only seen them in restaurant kitchens in China.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Why not get a flat bottom wok instead of a skillet? They are very common in the US because most burners are electric.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I think the nuwave comes with a wok, but yeah I could see that being an issue.
@@David_T Mostly personal preference. In my personal experience, I feel that with the way many flat bottomed woks are designed, that they end up quite easy to crowd - especially the smaller ones. Obviously, flat bottomed woks are an extremely common choice for homecooks - abroad and in China - so definitely don't take that preference as gospel or anything.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified One of the most important things I have learned from your channel is not to overcrowd my wok. I was trying to make large amounts and it wasn't coming out right. Once I backed down to a reasonable quantity, the dishes came out better.
...STUCK with induction burners? A basic tabletop plug-in 1800 watt induction is equivalent to a full-size 13k BTU home gas stove and a proper 3700 watt induction stove can put out power equivalent to a 40k BTU commercial stove.
Induction is better than gas at absolutely everything except woks, and with a flat-bottomed wok, you can still stir fry effectively just because of how immensely powerful the induction cooktop is that the wok bottom genuinely does send enough heat into what's in contact with it that you can stir fry.
Ok... now lift the wok to flip stuff around :)
I apologize for the slight sass... but unless you're using one of those induction wok burners, a standard induction range is certainly an inferior option to even a little butane camper burner, which (A) allows for any shape of wok and (B) actually allows you to lift the wok off the flame, giving you more flexible heat control. It sounds like you love your induction, which is awesome! But I'm just a little sick of induction evangelists here on UA-cam (huge crossover with the TechBro crowd, it seems) insisting that it's a better option than gas for *all* cuisines, when in our opinion gas is clearly a better option for wok cooking, all things equal.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Okay, I absolutely will lift up the wok to flip stuff; that's why I bought a Pow Wok that has a single handle! :P
While we're apologizing for sass, it occurred to me 5 seconds after posting that, as an avowed member of the induction evangelism society, chinese cooking is *the exact worst case* for induction. If there was any channel to not shill my favorite cooking tech on, it's this one. However, youtube is garbage on Firefox, and I couldn't edit the comment. Hope no feelings were hurt.
Well, i got 80% of the full list in my pantry. Guess I've been paying attention through the previous videos. 😅
pretty much same here. Although I'm vegan so obviously no shrimp etc. so not counting those. I just struggle to cook enough chinese food to avoid having anything spoil (haven't had to throw anything away yet but best before dates on some sauces have passed).
@Steph+Chris I actually found out what is so special on Caiziyou, I spotted it on some chinese chefs video as he mentioned it in the subs. The rapeseeds are "roasted" before pressing that gives it the darker colour + distinct flavor of the oil. I found here in Germany an artisan oil mill that makes some roasted rapeseed oil but I stick to regular from the grocery because it cost a fortune.
As someone living in Germany (Berlin), out of curiosity, what's the name of the oil mill and what's the product called in german?
@@malleureuse Ich bin Berliner lebe aber seit einigen Jahren in Niedersachsen. Dahmequell Landprodukte, Rapsöl kaltgepresst aus gerösteter Saat - Gruß nach Berlin.
Actually some ingredients are superior in South East Asia as the local Chinese produces much better quality product in comparison to Lee Kum Kee (which we think is mid range). Local white pepper, Five spice, sesame oil, soysauce and beanpaste, are generally superior. A lot of ingredients used in teochew cuisine would be unquestionably superior in Thailand.
That's interesting! In France I found some Carrefour sells Ayam Brand Sesame Oil, it's a Singaporean brand, and I'd say the taste IS indeed superior to Lee Kum Kee's. It's comparable to the Korean Ottogi Sesame Oil I have at home in Germany.
@@DizzyBusy For sesame oil, you will need to check how many percents the sesame oil content at the back of the ingredients. From what I observed, a lot of sesame oil, including Ayam is not 100% pure sesame oil. I particularly love Ghee Hiang, but usually can only be obtained from Malaysian suppliers. Also avoid clear coloured glass bottles. On the other side, Lee Kum Kee's 'premium' oyster sauce is one of the best around you can find. For dried ingredients, Thai's Goldfish brand is one of the most reliable brands.
@Annie Marie scam link huh
Haha I think the reason why people often have this impression is because the mainland Chinese products that're exported are the mass produced ones. Like, if you're within China you can find very high quality ingredients on Taobao, because it's literally like a dude in a village somewhere that's fermenting chili sauce according to the proper methods.
For example, 'Chinese garlic' gets a bad rap in the USA... because there's garlic that gets mass produced in China for cost reasons and then shipped over to the US. But the (not mass produced - i.e. from the wet market) garlic you buy within China is fine. Similarly, 'American chicken' in China is associated with frozen, woody, mass produced chicken... because that's what's exported (though post trade war that mass produced chicken is now from Brazil). But you can obviously also get fantastic chicken in America.
Of course, certain spices are definitely better in Southeast Asia. 100% agree on the white pepper, it's fantastic here. But you're definitely going to find much better, say, Sichuan peppercorns in the mainland.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified yeah. Export products will never reflect local high quality produce unless they are sold as novelties such as many Japanese products. Regarding to Szechuan peppercorns, there are some unique varietals in south east asia. One that is grown locally in Sumatra is called ‘Andaliman’. Not sure if mainland SE Asia has some other varietals.
Living in a small town in Europe makes cooking chinese food an adventure because at most you have a tiny all purpose "asian store". To get to an actual asian supermarket (like half the size of the one in the video) I would have to travel 300km
I feel you! I lived in a town in Galicia in the Northwestern corner of Spain about 600km drive from Madrid. I kept my eyes peeled for those
Similar situation in the UK where I live. Supermarkets stock bare basics. I have one Thai shop which sells miscellaneous Asian ingredients.
For a wider variety I have to travel to the city centre
THANKYOU!! This is wonderful information that I've really needed 💚
Very helpful! I am glad to see that you are in your new home. Just in the nick of time that is for sure.
Im glad to see you guys are in thailand finally. congrats on the move!
Looking forward to see what kind of videos you have planned for the future ;)
Now THIS is what I call AMAZING!
This is so helpful! Thank you for making this video!
I lived at Soi 5 Raja Cru off of Pohoyonton ( mispelled, sorry) for 3 years 1967- 1970.. I learned to love Asian cooking!
This is so useful, especially for categorizing ingredients and understanding their role in dishes!
Ultimate lesson of the video. You too will spend all your energy buying many of the ingredients you need to cook tasty food at home, then end up too tired to cook and get a takeaway / restaurant meal instead. 😅
So true
Answer: don't cook that day. Cook the next.
This. This is what killed me the most. Went to the store and it took an hour just to grab some of the things to make one meal. Some of them are unobtanium. Super annoying lol
loved this video style. steph is an international treasure
I'm so glad to see you two are eating well in your recent move! Thank you so much for this video, I love these kinds of "fundamentals" videos.
Welcome to Bangkok!
I cook Chinese style food almost every week here.
I am curious about the Sichuan peppercorns you bought. How are they? When I've bought them in the past here, they were weak and tasteless. I had to order online. That shop is great, however. I will look for them next time I go to Chinatown.
Also, there is a brand of peanut oil made in Thailand that is pretty good.
It's a little sad, but I used to get some really nice, small production soy sauce and Chinese vinegar made by Thai-Chinese people here. Great quality -- better than many of the standard Chinese brands available here -- and very low prices. Keep your eyes peeled, but I haven't seen them in a while.
The best soy sauce I have yet to find here is a bit expensive and from Taiwan. It's kept in the back room of one of the little shops on that market street you were at.
If you're interested, I sent you a message on Instagram. Perhaps we can meet in Chinatown for shopping and lunch. I am interested in what you think of some of my finds there.
Haha we had heard about the Sichuan peppercorn quality in Southeast Asia, and we actually brought a whole bunch with us...
(couldn't seem to find your DM on IG btw)
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Hi. I tried another message on Instagram. Is there another way to contact you?
I was in Bangkok only a month ago and seeing this video made me miss it a lot 🥲
Great kitchen guide!
Have been paying attention through the years on your channel since I have 100% of your shopping list at home 😄
Best wishes from Vienna!
I love this channel. You have taught me so much about authentic Chinese cuisine. Having been to Guangzhou via Kathmandu I got a glimpse of authentic Chinese cuisine..Thank you for your videos..
This is a great channel. I am learning so much.
Love to see you explore bkk. Looking forward to more of it!
Many of these items and even the brands were suggested in Kenji's The Wok cookbook and I have just recently stocked all of them. It is awesome to see the confirmation of those items here!
It’s so interesting to see the exact same brands that I have in my local c&c.
I would think, aside from the all at once cost, that was a super fun and exciting outing for you guys. Exploring to find the ingredients that you like and new ingredients that will become new favorites. Here in Canada, I had a friend from Bangkok, Thailand while in high school. I miss her a lot. I look forward to your new adventures and you possibly showing us what Thailand is like, here and there, along with your excellent regular content. I really appreciate the detailed list of ingredients and will be looking out for anything I don't have yet. Most items are in a city that is an hour drive so I only get there a couple times a year. Any produce/herbs etc are getting easier to find seeds for so I can grow all kinds of great stuff in my gardens now. The latest additions are eddoes, water spinach, Vietnamese coriander and Houttuynia cordata.
Congrats on the move! hope it's a great and amazing upgrade!
Superb
Very well done video. Respect from Los Angeles California.
Excellent video idea!
Wonderful
Great video, thanks!
Thanks for the video! It's really much easier to find a grand variety of stuff in Southeast Asia in comparison to Belgium and Spain where I was for quite a while. Anyway, as you're in Thailand, do give their tao jiew soybean paste a try and tell us about it. I have always been subbing Pailin's recipes with doenjiang and miso for it but never know how much I'm missing, if anything.
I liked this kind of video from you guys great job
This is an excellent channel thanks so much for sharing and showing westerner's what they need to cook Chinese food!
Thank u so much. I actually just got home from shopping in the asian store and just now I see your video. Should have looked before. I did pretty well. Now I have to continue watching your channel to know what to do with everything.
This is super accessible. Thanks!!
非常感謝您分享您的視頻
Very informative video, thanks !
Have to upgrade my pantry with the bean paste and shitaki mushrooms :)
Sawadee krab, enjoy Bangkok! Great video, I love this saying.
rapeseed is called canola in north america. and its also the vast majority component in normal vegetable oil.
I use a flat bottom carbon steel wok on an induction and it works decently, especially for things with a dry exterior like broccoli and scallions. Next time I use it I'm gonna put it directly on the coals in my grill and see how that works.
Strangely satisfying to see the familiar Koon Chun label featured so prominently at the end there. Love so many of their products (hoisin especially).
yep, I was happy to see them go for the LKK light soy sauce that I can get at the supermarket in the uk
What a great idea for a video! Y'all are so good at your job. (Or side hustle, if that's the case.)
EDIT: Steph holding the clip-on mic like a beat reporter is fucking amazing.
Haha... I can't spuress a certain glee that you are now faced with the same conundrum I've been facing ever since I started Chinese cooking. But I'm glad you did the video for those who haven't been through this. And by the way I've reached about the same conclusion - with the exception of canola oil which I can get far more easily than peanut oil.
I would love to see a similar format video when you two start to travel to more countries. Explore Chinese groceries abroad, see what is available, make recommendations on what's not
I loved this video, I hope y'all are enjoying Bangkok ❤️
I think when induction was mentioned in the video, what was meant was electric or glass top electric.
I am a new youtuber in cooking and i love to learn all countries recipes.thnx for giving an Idea about China's cooking.i believe this will be very useful for me 😀 thanks a lot sis ❤️
wow I so missed Bangkok. I was there like 3 times and the subway was half built. There is no train station to chinatown. I hope one day can go back there and see more of Bangkok and ride the lovely new subway.
In the USA it is basically impossible to find Caiziyou, roasted rapeseed oil, but I have bought your recommended Caiziyou online from Mala Market and it’s wonderful 😊
Welcome to Bangkok. Here we don't really have covid lock down anymore.
It's good that you succeed in fleeing lock down.
Great video 👏🏻
I love your little clips in the subways etc! I've always wanted to go Thailand but had no idea as to logistics etc. All the travel TV shows tend to focus on are those mad intersections with 20 lanes of cars. I never knew they had metro rail! Looking forward to seeing more of your daily life in Thailand... including... what tasty random treats can you get in the 7-11! (Like the ubiquitous tea-egg in Taiwan).
Haha 7/11s are great here, but - and this might be controversial - when it comes to snacks China/Taiwan/HK is much better I think. The hot food selection here is much more limited, BUT I think that's partly a function of the ubiquitous street snacks here. Because, like, why get some curry fishballs from a convenience store when there's a bunch of vendors literally right outside the 7/11 door selling loads of snacks?
Bangkok's an underrated city, I think (maybe an odd thing to say given that its like this international tourist destination). The car traffic *is* a nightmare to look at, for sure, but between the metro and motorcycles (which can lane filter through the nonsense) the city's actually pretty convenient. And BKK is just such a fantastic food city...
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Heck yes! Street snacks! Even little shorts. "I don't know what this is, it doesn't have a word in English, but by golly it's delicious"!
Induction is amazing, I use a large carbon steel frying-pan to make wok-inspired dishes
I got 15 things from the big list already in my kitchen. So that's not bad!
That’s a solid list. I would add white pepper and oyster sauce.
This is the video I needed!
Hey Steff and Chris, I do really envy you for your new home base. When I was working in Bangkok/Pathum Thani I really loved it there. And after doing some reading about Singapure fusion cooking (Peranakan / Chinese Malay and all the other mixes in SP)recently, I hope that as a bonus of your stay, you will supply us with some nice Thai-Chinese fusion from Bangkok? At least from time to time. Carry on!😋
Haha Thai-Chinese is definitely on the radar, but we need to learn more about the Thai end of it to do the story(s) justice.
Maybe annually we’ll do one Thai dish though just for the fun of it.
This video is amazing! Thank you!
Wow I was like I recognize that place... took me awhile to realize you're in BKK!
That burner was recommended by Helen Reinne, too. She was very positive!
for those portable stoves you need to get one that can use propane from the big bbq propane tanks.
the small portable propane tanks cost more everyday
I'm not sure how well known it is but canola oil is rapeseed. We still use the name rapeseed in the UK but it got changed to canola in the US as it sounds bad.
Not sure if it maybe is getting labelled as canola or some other translation in other places too.
Edit: should say canola is a type or rapeseed. They bred it to also lower certain chemical concentrations.
Australia markets it as canola too.
Unfortunately, due to breeding and processing differences, canola (or at least most canola) lacks the characteristic flavor of Sichuan caiziyou
Hello! Steph and Chris made a video explaining the difference between canola oil and caiziyou. Check it out if you want to learn more: ua-cam.com/video/xDP9t65PVsY/v-deo.html :)
The rapeseed oil we can get in the UK has had all of the flavours processed out of it to be a very neutral tasting oil. Look at the colour of the one they show in the video Vs the kind you can buy in the supermarket and you'll see it's apples and oranges. Closest substitute if you specifically need that flavour for Sichuan cuisine would be Indian mustard seed oil.
@@Arcturus5 that's a real shame. It doesn't have a strong taste already. Has always been my families oil of choice.
Do you know if the breeding has changed the cooking properties much, such as the smoke point?
I wish they could just get the fields of it to smell less.
Takeaway and Restaurant prices have sky rocketed like everything food related recently so I decided to start and create my own oriental dishes at home. Its addictive seriously naughty addictive !! Its a whole new world of cooking and takes over your kitchen cupboards shelves FRIDGE & FREEZER fast so be prepared for the invasion you will need plenty of space !! But to start off spend time watching and comparing dishes here on UA-cam each dish can be made in many different ways, simple and complex but its worth spending time to understand why a dish can be made more complex, it tastes better !!!! Whilst many ingredients can be sourced and bought at your local tradition supermarket I tend to find the specialist are in fact cheaper and better quality, especially the fresh vegies and spices. Long story short, I can now make any dish found on a Restaurant menu for a fraction of the cost, often mine tastes even better and when I do slash out I can taste EVERY ingredients used and even what is missing that makes my own version better !! My one piece of advice, BUY IN BULK when you can and understand what can be frozen and what can't and just what is the shelf life and buy a lot of quality shelf and fridge/freezer foods containers, YOU WILL NEED THEM !!
.. Cheers to you. ..
Flat bottom wok works like magic on an induction hob. Induction hob can push it to incredible heat not attainable on European gas burners, so definitely better option.
Go for it!🥰
I was thinking if you moved to Bangkok. Welcome to Bangkok. This will be a lot easier for me to follow your recipe as I live here.
Be careful not to lump electric burners in with induction. Electric is not good and mostly lousy to cook with. Induction is not great for woks but has other great benefits and is generally very nice to cook with. I have a plug in one and it has better control and higher heat output than my home gas stove or my portable butane burner.
I got a proper one and it can draw 3000 Watts. If I am not careful, it will burn food to a crisp and I am pretty sure it is more powerful than my gas grill.
All the best wishes for the move and a new adventure for a time \o/
Welcome to Bangkok 🥰🙏🏻
Could you please add the Google Maps locations for the shops that you visited on this video? I'd love to buy some of those delicious ingredients as well.
My induction wok burner is the bomb!
Thank you so much for the informative video! Can fermented black beans(douchi) be used a kind of 'mother sauce' like the bean sauce you bought? As I dive deeper into Chinese cuisine, I come across recipes that call for multiple sauces using soybeans, such as tian mian jiang and hoisin sauce. I wonder if I can imitate these sauces by buying douchi. It would be of great help if you could give me an answer.
Goodness gracious I have so much subway envy over from here in America
It’s amazing how many of the very same brands are easy to locate here in the philadelphia region
So you guys think a cold pressed/extra Virgin rapeseed/canola oil is a good sub for Caiziyou?
I mean the seeds are not toasted beforehand like in Caiziyou, but it still has some of that original flavor, I don't know if you've ever tried a cold pressed canola oil?
Up in the colder climates it might be very difficult to find mustard or Caiziyou oil, but this can be even locally produced.
Welcome to Bangkok!
Do you have an episode covering the teas you have? Or maybe an alternative channel where you cover these meta topics? It would be fun to hear
Tks
Thanks for helping stocking up one's pantry. If you had unlimited time, it would be nice if you also had a webpage with your favorite three brands of each of these ingredients, but with (most importantly, for your foreign viewers) photos of each item, given language barriers in some US Asian markets. I hoped to have found the Ve-Tsin MSG you had (given the beautiful container), but no luck. (Is there much, if any, differences between MSG brands?) Do you have a favorite brand of broad bean paste? At one point someone recommended 'Sichuan Pixian Douban Co (Juan Cheng Pai)', but perhaps you can suggest something better I can hopefully find? Still, I imagine some of your favorite ingredients are freshly made or smaller brands, given the wondrous markets you can access. Thanks for your videos, tips and recipes!
Hey, just to answer a couple questions:
1. There's no different between MSG brands except the size of the crystals. While no matter what MSG dissolves quite fast, we prefer finer MSG as it's easier to incorporate into uncooked dipping sauces and the like. This is our first time using Ve-Tsin, but it does have a gorgeous container.
2. Juan Cheng Pai is definitely the best mass produced broad bean paste.
Just want to give people a quick reminder to carefully check the label when shopping for the vinegars, make sure it says something like Chencu ("Shanxi Mature Vinegar") -or- Xiangcu ("Chinkiang Vinegar") not just "black vinegar". I couldn't find any Chinkiang at several stores the other day so I bought a bottle that just said Black Vinegar on the label. Turns out its a Taiwanese product that is more like Worcestershire sauce, not bad but definitely not what I was looking for.
There's also a Cantonese vinegar that's sometimes labelled "Black Vinegar", which is basically a thick vinegary syrup. One of the reasons I confuse everyone by using the nomenclature "dark Chinese vinegar" haha
@@ChineseCookingDemystifiedDoes this problem go both ways? In stores in China are there just a bunch of bottles labeled "Tomato Product" and some are marinara sauce and some are ketchup?
@@timmyv930 oh yeah, in some places (with some brands) tomato paste, ketchup, and even sometimes canned tomato puree are all "tomato sauce" in Chinese.😅
oh, you mean the black vinegar I bought that tastes like worcestershire is not actual black vinegar?? hmm.
@@kevinwhite6176 there are three types of black vinegar in Taiwan. there are all Chinese - oringenated but two of them have foreign influences which make them taste different. one type has deep worcestershire influence . This is very likely what you got.
hi! this is really great, thank you! when i first started making chinese food at home i bought everything on a list of basic cupboard ingredients. a lot of them are the same ones you suggest here, but this list also insisted i NEEDED to get yellow bean sauce. i've never actually used it and it doesn't seem like a lot of recipes i come across call for it, is it a common ingredient in some parts of china and not others? the only dish i can think of that calls for it is zhajiang mian, so is it a northern thing? do you use it much?
While I'd grant that it's less commonly used than soy sauce or Shaoxing, we do use it here or there on this channel - super common in Cantonese cooking too. Off the top of my head, we've used it for Sichuan sauce fried beef, Minsi steamed pork belly (in the mise en place video), etc etc.
The reason why we consider it fundamental to Chinese cooking, however, is that it's used as a base for many other sauces AND can be used as a substitute for many other regional fermented bean sauces. For example, Minsi paste is a sort of 'mother sauce' to Char Siu sauce, Hoisin sauce, Chu Hou paste and so forth - so if someone doesn't happen to have Chu Hou paste on hand, with a few small adjustments they can use Minsi paste in a pinch. Further, in the North - in addition to the famed Zhajiangmian - there are many dishes that lean on Huangjiang, particularly stews and such (we haven't done so many on this channel as we have less experience with northern cuisines). Minsi paste, while slightly different, can work as a direct substitute for all of these dishes. Ditto with the Sichuan-style Tianmianjiang (which despite the name is much closer to Huangjiang than Tianmianjiang).
Or route 3 : get a professional grade induction Wok stove. Those are amazing
Great channel thanks again for the cooking knowledge
Why the hate for induction hobs? Obviously it requires a flat bottomed wok which isn't perfect, but once you get accustomed to working with that it's great as induction heats sooo much quicker than gas it's ideal for stir fry, plus it means not burning gas - even better with renewable electricity for the induction.
What about those rounded induction stoves that come with a wok? No good?
THIS IS SO CHINESE! CHINESE PEOPLE DON'T FUXK AROUND! THUMBS UP!!! SO MANY THUMBS UP!!! TRUTH, REALITY, SHARING, CARING, FEEDING. BEAUTIFUL!!!
What a video. Kind of off-topic: I'm amazed at how many languages share "cha" for tea.
That is the same exact soy sauce I get from my local market. I feel so validated! :D
what is that your eating at the end? it looks delicious! :)
man, that shot of steph grabbing the peanut oil looked EXACTLY like an asian import market i used to frequent. same stark white everything, same weird geometric cieling. shockingly, seemingly even the same arrangement of products upon the shelves! oils with soy sauces and vinegars, across from the noodles. wonder if it's a franchise?
6:46 that lady in the back has a shirt from america that people bought in support of their classmate Drew who was probably a popular kid who played sports and got cancer in highschool. Crazy that she has that shirt in thailand
Oh! The Bangkok metro voice! I miss her!
What are you/is she eating at the end of the video please and thank you? It looks like something I had in a tiny restaurant in Washington DC years ago but cannot remember the name of.
Peanut oil is 20 US dollars per gallon in the US. What's the price in your area?
How do yo store your dry spices if you won't be using them for a few months. I know you probably do go through them quickly.
I've got a gas stove but prefer induction. The latter heats things up SOOOO fast! And it's better for your health and the environment, too (less air pollution).
Also, how do you guys feel about Pearl River Bridge soy sauces? Especially the light ones. For me, it's the best tasting - lots of flavor and not as salty as any other brands I've come across. Most importantly, they say their soy sauces are naturally brewed.
i agree about Pearl River Bridge, theirs is the best widely available Chinese soy sauce you can get outside of China. As for induction, although it heats up quickly, it's less practical for some stir frying techniques, as the wok has to be in contact with the stove constantly, whereas with a flame you can lift the wok to toss the food while still heating the wok.
@@brandon3872 Ah, right, induction's not very good when comes to using it with a wok. I don't own or use a wok so that's probably another reason why I prefer induction. 😅
@@brandon3872 Oh, and I forgot to add: I did very much appreciate our gas stove on several occasions when we had prolonged power outages. 😛
@@Earthling3996 Ah ok, you can still make really tasty stir fries with a frying pan 😊
One of the reasons I still use my gas stove is because I found out my induction shuts off as soon as it detects traces amounts of char in the pan which is how I liked my caramelized onion and fried rice (slightly smoky).
On the oil: here in the UK i have been using sesame oil. It has a nice nutty flavour that closely matches that of the peanut imho.
Sesame oil is much too strong to use as normal oil
@@HaydenLau. so use less? Can combine it with a flavorless oil if needed for volume. Regardless I've been using just fine.
@@astropolski
Oh, I thought you meant toasted sesame oil. Carry on.
Isn’t there some local brands peanut oil in Thailand?
How were the prices for these items in Bangkok compared back home?