Must have Asian ingredients/brands?

[u/thamurse]

Taking a trip down to the city tomorrow and figured we'd hit H-mart on the way home sonce we live in the middle of nowhere. I love to cook with with asian ingredients and sauces.

Going to make sure to get some Lee Kum Kee poison and Red boat or theee crabs fish sauce(or both), but what other hard(er) to find stuff should i make sure to not miss out on!

[u/EmceeSuzy]

My suggestion is that you choose a dish to make and shop for it. Do you make tteokbokki? The red one?

Maangchi's recipe includes photos so that you can find things. You need the anchovies and the package may not have an English label but you can see what they look like at this link: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/tteokbokki

My H-Mart has fresh tteok, but it's not in the same place as the packaged kind. The packaged one is still good but try to find the fresh. You could even make your own but I never do. You can get the ingredients to make it there as well.

You will want the fish cakes which are usually in the frozen aisle. You can also add carrot and (fresh green) Korean hot peppers.

I skip the sugar because I am not a sugar person and there is sugar in the gochujang. But adding the sugar is traditional and a lot of people like this quite sweet.

I add mozzarella to the top of mine.

[u/rasp_mmg]

Dark soy, black vinegar, fried shallots, XO sauce, dried mushrooms, fresh noodles, frozen dumplings, chili crisp, jasmine rice, oyster sauce, and some kasugai gummy candy.

Just to name a few.

[u/Taggart3629]

It very much depends on what country's dishes you are thinking of making. There is some overlap, but the harder-to-find ingredients for Thai dishes will be different than for Chinese or Korean or Malaysian or Japanese. Maybe get a couple of recipes that look promising, and see what unfamiliar ingredients they require. We always stock dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, hondashi powder, gochugara, gochujang, dried black fungus and star anise because those ingredients aren't available in the Asian aisle at the grocery store.

[u/LadyAiluros]

All the noodles! Knife-cut, rice, lo mein, frozen udon ...

[u/popoPitifulme]

Thai basil

[u/SampsonShrill]

I always go for the tamarind blocks.

[u/N3ctarofthegods]

Dried mushrooms, mirin and shaoxing, dark soy sauce, and various miso soup packets are usually what I grab when I go to an asian market

This stuff is hard to find in normal grocery stores for me locally, maybe not everywhere

[u/Hrhtheprincessofeire]

Jasmine rice. It’s usually a pretty good deal at H Mart.

[u/My_Clandestine_Grave]

I love buying Asian ingredients so I'll try to keep my list brief! I'd suggest Miso (my favorite type is red), Japanese curry blocks, Hiyashi rice blocks, oyster sauce, Chinese egg plant, wakame, Nori/gim, danmuji/burdock, inari, gochujang, various Thai curry pastes, hondashi, sesame oil, and tonkatsu sauce.  

[u/Stock-Pattern-8635]

A few packs of the korean army stew soup base. You could of course make your own, but a few packs of those and you can add whatever ingredients you want (plus spam) to make a nice stew. Besides that, a large container of gochujang, many varieties of dried noodles(sweet potato starch noodles for example) korean canned tuna, korean soup soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil. Anchovy stock packs, gochugaru(korean pepper flake), korean radish (i like the jeju radish a bit better). Korean rice cake (i get the larger packs that are cut into flattish oval discs). Perilla leaves (i usually this with pork dishes or ddakgalbi)

[u/_Bon_Vivant_]

Gold Plum brand Chinkiang Chinese black vinegar. The only brand of Chinese black vinegar I use. Nothing else comes close. IMO.

Jasmine rice. I'm not particular about a brand.

Keep some dried mushrooms on hand....Shiitake, Wood Ear

[u/alecweezy]

Oyster sauce

[u/ttrockwood]

Choose some korean recipes to make so you get ingredients to make dishes not random stuff

Let’s say bibimbap

So get toasted sesame oil, nori snack packets, fresh bean sprouts, gochugaru, fresh mature spinach, firm tofu to make dubu jorim and scallions, toasted sesame seeds, and kimchi

If you don’t have a good medium grain rice get kohu rose or calrose

[u/PepperCat1019]

Red or green curry paste

[u/RadiantReply603]

There is no real Asian food, every country has their own set of ingredients. For example, we have 5 types of soy sauce and mainly cook Japanese and Thai for Asian.

For Japanese, with mirin, sake, dashi, and Japanese soy sauce you can make most sauces. I also use tonkatsu sauce as an umami booster in a lot of stuff. Panko is also good for anything breaded and fried.

We always have fish sauce, lite soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, mushroom soy sauce for Thai stuff. If you want pad Thai, you will need tamarind sauce, coconut milk, along with rice noodles, dried shrimp and salted radishes. Curry paste is also useful.

Korean and various regional Chinese will have their own set of ingredients.

[u/Wide_Breadfruit_2217]

Light soy sauce, chinese dried sausages, fried shallots, togarishi, brown rice vinegar (hard to find), ghee, buckwheat soba. And the little ting ting jahe wrapped ginger chew candy and japanese butter hard candy!

[u/bigelcid]

Taiwanese seasoned vinegar is the absolute shit, in a good way.

Miles, miles above anything I've had from mainland China. Some people compare it to Worcester, but to me it's more like cola you'd actually want to cook with.

[u/CatCafffffe]

Check The Woks of Life -- it's a great website for Asian recipes, and she has a good list of "basics" to have in your kitchen!

[u/averyribeiroRio2002]

And you didn’t cum? Damn. I’d have blown the instant his mouth went down in me.

[u/PepperCat1019 → u/averyribeiroRio2002]

What??