Chinese pantry

Asian recipes can be quite intimidating; which could include ingredients that you may or may not be accustomed to, like medicinal herbs grown by blind Buddhist monks on the foothills of the Himalayas, baby tiger shark pancreas, unicorn tears and good ‘ol thinleaf milkwort root. In reality, most Asian pantries (more particularaly Chinese pantries) consist of a handful of staple ingredients that when used in different combinations with each other, make up the backbone of most of your favourite Chinese recipes. To help you narrow down the items that are versatile that are guaranteed to be used more than once, here’s my list of essential Asian pantry items for common Chinese recipes