What do I need from the oriental supermarket?

[sunsetsand]

Hi,

I've got reason to visit the oriental supermarket tomorrow and for some reason I've never been! I'm doing a Korean cooking class in a few days so need some quite specific ingredients.

Love all foods and flavours so help me out and tell me what else I need to try whilst I'm there! Thanks

Pancakes & hoisin sauce, then roast a duck - crispy duck pancakes. The pancakes can be frozen too. And gyoza

Oooh.

Get some furikake if you can. It's for sprinkling on rice. Makes it extra tasty.

EssentialHummus can you buy bubbles for bubble tea in the supermarket?

Usually, yes. If you’re totally stuck you can buy them online from Amazon or Asian wholesalers. May be called boba or tapioca pearl.

DD and I went to the oriental supermarket in Leeds last week. I could have spent hours in there (and £££ )
Among our purchases were:

gochujang paste
soybean paste
sweet chilli sauce
dried shiitake mushrooms
soy sauce
rice vinegar
fried tofu
red braising sauce
frozen gyoza
yellow curry paste
fried seaweed

There is more but I can't remember what else we bought.

Crispy fried chilli in oil, as a condiment for anything which is a bit bland.

Szechuan pepper! I use it on everything including omelettes

Chiu chow chilli oil
Chilli bean paste
Black bean and garlic sauce
Rice wine vinegar
Mirin

Fancy mushrooms

don’t forget sweets, biscuits and soft drinks in cute packaging! i could browse / buy from oriental supermarkets for hours 🤗

I've found a gochujang on the Asda website that says no MSG on it so I've added that to my usual shop.

I'll look out for it for price comparison purposes tomorrow!

Will the pancakes for duck be in the fridges or frozen?

Definitely worth getting a steamer - v cheap and easy! It needs to sit inside your pan: either a big deep saucepan with a lid (in which case also get a little metal tripod for it to sit on above the water), or put it in a shallow pan with sloping sides so that it’s easy to get a seal over the water, if that makes sense.

I’ve yet to find gochujang without MSG but I haven’t made it a mission to look. It’ll be listed on the English label sticker Flavour enhancer, E623 or similar numbers IIRC

If they have pandan chiffon cake you definitely need it!

Wonton wrappers! I can't find them in any large supermarket. Jamie Oliver has a recipe for butternut squash, broccoli and miso dumplings that is amazing and uses wonton wrappers. I also love baozi which are the big fluffy dumplings cooked in a steamer.

Not an obvious choice but I normally buy pickled mustard greens in small cans. I use it to make an egg dish I had in Vietnam and became obsessed with. Basically you stir fry eggs and mustard greens with some oil, a little soy sauce and pinch of sugar.

"I’ve yet to find gochujang without MSG but I haven’t made it a mission to look. It’ll be listed on the English label sticker Flavour enhancer, E623 or similar numbers IIRC"

Thank you, and for the steamer tips. I have a big pan with a lid but I'll measure it before I go.

This is the paste in Asda. Says no MSG on it

Large bottles of... (much cheaper. MSG free & good)

Pearl River Dark Soy sauce.

Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli Sauce

Sushi Rice & Sushi Nori Sheets

Ask them to recommend their best green jasmine tea. We've had some wonderful ones that way.

White Rabbit Chews. additive free lovely chewy milk sweets. Still DDs favourite at 18

Frozen rice pancakes for home made (veggie) duck & pancakes

So much more I can't think of right now. Take time to browse if you can. Ours is like a treasure trove of goodies

Oh & a Maki rolling mat if you don't already have one

In descending order of importance:

Chaokoh coconut milk - most brands I find at the supermarket are horrible and oily these days. This is the good stuff.

Mae ploy or similar Thai curry pastes.

Deep fried tofu from the refrigerator section. Triangle format tastes best for some reason. Combine with first two ingredients for serious comfort food.

Mock meat / gluten in tins - pretend meat is nothing as compared to this stuff.

Fish balls and fish tofu.

Fresh noodles.

Please pick me up some rice wine too, please!

That looks great - makes me happy to see these things in our regular supermarkets.

I’m getting hungry reading this thread! Hope you find some good stuff OP.

Light and dark soy sauce.
Oyster sauce.
Five spice.
Imported hoi sin (tastes completely different)
Hainanese chicken rice sauce/paste.
Soba noodles.
Dim sum, we love gyoza, char sui bao, sui mai and xiao long bao.
Pancakes. The kids also love fortune cookies.
Pineapple cakes.
And lap cheong which is a Chinese sausage. You can dry fry it and add it to fried rice and it is delicious.

Tinned crab
Dried mushrooms
The forzen tuna steaks in my Wing Yip are amazing

Cookware - I bought a wok 15 years ago, inexpensive, and it's the best pan I own.

F

Mochi. All the Mochi.

Tins of wasabi peas, and palm sugar for Thai food.

Apart from all the other things above :-
Frozen soft shell crabs
Frozen clams

I have to wait until there's plenty of room in my freezers before I shop.

Why do you need to avoid msg? There is nothing wrong with it as a flavour enhancer, and the Western hysteria surrounding its use in Asian food is mostly thinly veiled racism.

yep MSG is fine!

just not too much. but the same can be said about salt.