Asian Pantry

Cooking authentic Asian food at home is easy as long as you have the right ingredients on hand.

Soy sauce is a familiar Asian ingredient. It’s dark and salty and made from fermented soybeans and roasted wheat or barley. While we tend to use a single, multi-purpose soy sauce in the US, in China and Japan there are a wide variety of soy sauces available- from light and runny to dark and thick. The lighter soy sauces are usually saltier than the darker ones. If salt content concerns you, you can find low sodium soy sauces, too.
Sesame oil is an important ingredient in Asian cuisine. You can find both light and dark Sesame oil. Asian sesame oil is the darker variety and it’s used to flavor lots of dishes. You’ll be impressed by what even a small amount does to make your dish taste authentic.
If you’re not familiar with Fish sauce , it may sound a little strange but once you try it you’ll see it adds great depth of flavor to Asian dishes. It’s made from salted, fermented fish and has, as you can imagine, a strong, salty flavor. It’s sometimes flavored with chiles or sugar, too. Fish sauce is used a lot like soy sauce.
Chili Paste is made from fermented Fava Beans, chiles and sometimes garlic, which is called Chili Paste with Garlic.