If you're just starting to get into Chinese cooking and you're not sure where to start, you came to the right place! Here's a quick guide to the basic ingredients that you'll need when exploring the diverse world of Chinese cuisines.
This is currently a work-in-progress, and I'll be adding more essential ingredients as time goes on. If you're looking for more special or advanced ingredients, you can check out my other guide (coming soon).
Soy Sauce
Let's start with perhaps the most classic ingredient of all: soy sauce. This is a condiment that you'll find in almost every Chinese recipe and dish, plus it's used all around Asia too. Basically, you'll want to be stocked with soy sauce 24/7. To get started, get a bottle of light or regular soy sauce. You could also get some dark soy sauce, which is richer and thicker.
Soy sauce is made from fermented soy beans, wheat, and a few other ingredients. It's known for adding umami (savoriness) to a dish, but it has a note of sweetness in it too. You can use it to braise meat, dip sushi in, or fry rice—the possibilities are endless.
Black Vinegar
You may know about white vinegar, but Chinese black vinegar is on a completely different level. It's made out of fermented sticky rice and is aged, giving the liquid a malty, acidic, complex flavor. Black vinegar is often used to dip xiaolongbao or dumplings in, but my family also uses it for hot and sour soup, sweet and sour pork ribs, and more.
Shaoxing Wine
Shaoxing wine—also known as Chinese cooking wine—comes from fermented rice, which means it adds a unique depth to whatever you're making in the kitchen. It's used for marinating meat (usually chicken or pork) or splashed into a wok to deglaze, as you might do in Western cooking.
In a pinch, you can substitute it with sherry, sake, or even broth to completely avoid alcohol. But if you really want to get into Chinese cooking, you'll want to have it on hand.
Dried Red Chili Peppers
There are a lot of different varieties of dried chili peppers, but you'll want to have at least one type on hand. For some extra flavor and spice to your dish, toast them (either whole or chopped up) in a wok. It can also be toasted, then ground into a powder for sprinkling onto dishes.
Five Spice Powder
To add a flavorful kick to your cooking, make sure you have some five spice powder in your pantry. True to its name, it has five spices: star anise, cloves, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and fennel seeds. It's generally used on meat as a part of a marinade or dry rub.
Sichuan Peppercorns
This is the iconic spice of the Sichuan province in China. It doesn't add your usual spice. Instead, Sichuan peppercorns creates a unique flavor called málà, which means that you'll experience a numbing, tingling sensation in your mouth. You definitely won't want to eat a whole bunch of these, but adding them to dishes like mapo tofu or Sichuan boiled fish brings a mouth-watering and deliciously intense flavor.
There are two common varieties: green and red peppercorns. The green ones are a bit more intense than the red, and they have a more citrus-like taste.
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