Chinese Pantry Essentials - What to Buy at a Chinese Supermarket

So this's a video that a lot of you've been asking for... a basic overview of the most common ingredients used in Chinese cooking. While what we got here is by no means exhaustive, I hope it's a decent overview of some pantry essentials to have on hand.

What we talked about, for reference: salt, sugar, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, green onion, cilantro, leek, white onion, Chinese celery, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, white vinegar, dark vinegar, liaojiu/Shaoxing wine, oyster sauce, Pixian Doubanjiang (Chili Bean paste), stock concentrate (chicken and scallop/abalone), five spice, Sichuan peppercorns, the braising spices best bought on an as-need basis (cinnamon, clove, dried bay leaf, star anise, fennel seed, black cardamom), fresh mild paprika chili (difficult to find), fresh erjingtiao (difficult to find), dried erjingtiao, pickled erjingtiao (difficult to find), fresh chaotianjiao, dried chaotianjiao (difficult to find), pickled chaotianjiao, dried shrimp/scallops, dried shiitake mushrooms, and laoganma chili sauce.

The /r/cooking post has unfortunately been deleted, but it's all over here in a public Patreon post:

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Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free
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ABOUT US
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Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) :)

We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last nine years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.

This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too!