How to start cooking Chinese... outside of China (feat. Bangkok's Chinatown)

How to set up your kitchen to cook Chinese food! It's always a little bit of a process to set things up to cook a new cuisine (so that you're not spending a fortune buying a ton of random ingredients on Amazon or whatever), and in this video we wanted to cover the absolute basics of what you need to get started.

0:00 - The seven things you need to cook Chinese food
1:00 - 1, Fire
2:52 - 2, Rice
3:35 - 3, Salt
4:01 - 4, Oil
4:50 - 5, Fermented Sauce(s)
6:03 - 6, Vinegar/Wine
6:36 - 7, Tea/Dried Goods
7:31 - Is this a complete list?

A MORE COMPLETE LIST

We wanted to keep this video to basically the barest essentials. We also decided to cut out a few ingredients that we figured you might already have in your kitchen (e.g. cornstarch). To be ready to cook a wider range of Chinese food, it'd be helpful to at least have some of these as well:

BASICS: Salt, Granulated Sugar, MSG, Chicken Bouillon Powder, Cornstarch (or preferably a root vegetable starch like potato)

RICE/FLOUR/NOODLES: Jasmine rice, 00 Flour, Rice Noodles (dried Vietnamese rice noodles can work well), Noodles

OILS: Peanut oil, Caiziyou (virgin rapeseed oil) -or- Indian Mustard Seed Oil, Toasted Sesame Oil

SAUCES: Mianchi ("Bean Sauce") -or- Huangjiang -or- Red Miso, Pixian Doubanjiang ("Chili Bean Paste"), Oyster Sauce, Soy Sauce, Dark Soy Sauce, Lao Gan Ma, Tianmianjiang ("Sweet Bean Paste"), Hoisin sauce, Chu Hou Paste

OTHER FERMENTED INGREDIENTS: Fermented Bean Curd (white, red too if possible), Douchi (Chinese black beans), Yacai, Suancai

VINEGAR/WINE: Chencu ("Shanxi Mature Vinegar") -or- Xiangcu ("Chinkiang Vinegar"), Shaoxing wine (preferably unsalted)

SPICES: Cinnamon, clove, Sichuan peppercorn, fennel seed, star anise, white pepper, Tsaoko ("Chinese black Cardamom"), Chenpi (dried and aged tangerine peel), licorice root, sand ginger

DRIED INGREDIENTS: Dried shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, dried scallops, wood ear mushrooms, dried kelp

Eventually, we'll do the whole Youtuber thing, make an Amazon storefront & link it here for your reference (generally not recommended to buy Chinese ingredients on Amazon abroad, as the price is often 2-3 times what you'd pay at a Chinese supermarket). If you're USA based, you can also find a large number of these product on Weee:

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And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!

Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ

[ChineseCookingDemystified]

Hey guys, a few notes:

1. Definitely do check out the complete list in the description box. While we only talked about a dozen or so ingredients in the video, to *truly* set up your kitchen to smoothly cook Chinese food will likely take a few more additions (the final list clocked in at 43 ingredients, though a standard western kitchen would likely already contain ~10 of them).

2. Bangkok is an interesting place to shop for Chinese food, as a good 99 Ranch or T&T has a better selection than the similar sort of grocer we have here (王中王, the second place we went to in the video). But there’s also a massive old Chinatown which has a *ton* of Teochew and Cantonese ingredients, a large Japanese population (Japanese cuisine has a good hunk of ingredient crossover with coastal Chinese), and not to mention Thai produce is extremely similar to Yunnan produce. It’s a super fascinating place to shop for sure. Of course, on the Chinese ingredient front, the biggest draw is that we can Taobao here…

3. Regarding stoves, unfortunately the Iwatani ZA-3HP is currently out of stock on Amazon (feels like everything is out of stock on Amazon these days?). They carry the VA-30 right now which I can’t personally vouch for, but has a similar heat output and *appears* like it can also hold a round bottomed wok without issue.

4. Apologies for the slightly rough audio when Steph was on the main road.

That’s all I can think of for now. We’ll be releasing a quick little video on which Chinese items need to be refrigerated or not in a couple days, then next week we’ll be back with another proper cooking video. Apologies for the slight shift in content during this time moving countries – we knew that it’d be intense, but we actually kind of underestimated the intensity haha.

[MaxPolun]

Route number 3 for electric only people -- get an induction wok burner. It works via induction like a stove, but has a round bottom for a wok. There are pretty cheap ones (and also very expensive ones). I have gas, so I haven't used it but I hear they work well.

[bernardlokman]

Actually some ingredients are superior in South East Asia as the local Chinese produces much better quality product in comparison to Lee Kum Kee (which we think is mid range). Local white pepper, Five spice, sesame oil, soysauce and beanpaste, are generally superior. A lot of ingredients used in teochew cuisine would be unquestionably superior in Thailand.

[Alexlalpaca]

This is the video I would have liked to have 5 years ago when I got started with Chinese cooking, I hope it helps many others in the same position as 17 year old me

[LightOfHands]

As an ADHD person who struggles with organization and planning and avoids things that I don't have experience with and think I'll be bad, at this is the best kind of video.
Just the basics.

[mrpepin]

Well, i got 80% of the full list in my pantry. Guess I've been paying attention through the previous videos. 😅

[LordButtersI]

...STUCK with induction burners? A basic tabletop plug-in 1800 watt induction is equivalent to a full-size 13k BTU home gas stove and a proper 3700 watt induction stove can put out power equivalent to a 40k BTU commercial stove.

Induction is better than gas at absolutely everything except woks, and with a flat-bottomed wok, you can still stir fry effectively just because of how immensely powerful the induction cooktop is that the wok bottom genuinely does send enough heat into what's in contact with it that you can stir fry.

[chrisw]

I'm so glad to see you two are eating well in your recent move! Thank you so much for this video, I love these kinds of "fundamentals" videos.

[brokenspine]

@Steph+Chris I actually found out what is so special on Caiziyou, I spotted it on some chinese chefs video as he mentioned it in the subs. The rapeseeds are "roasted" before pressing that gives it the darker colour + distinct flavor of the oil. I found here in Germany an artisan oil mill that makes some roasted rapeseed oil but I stick to regular from the grocery because it cost a fortune.

[Marketsolo]

I lived at Soi 5 Raja Cru off of Pohoyonton ( mispelled, sorry) for 3 years 1967- 1970.. I learned to love Asian cooking!

[digitalincometactics]

This is an excellent channel thanks so much for sharing and showing westerner's what they need to cook Chinese food!

[brentrill]

loved this video style. steph is an international treasure

[a.p]

Thank u so much. I actually just got home from shopping in the asian store and just now I see your video. Should have looked before. I did pretty well. Now I have to continue watching your channel to know what to do with everything.

[maksi]

I was in Bangkok only a month ago and seeing this video made me miss it a lot 🥲
Great kitchen guide!
Have been paying attention through the years on your channel since I have 100% of your shopping list at home 😄
Best wishes from Vienna!

[abydosianchulac]

Strangely satisfying to see the familiar Koon Chun label featured so prominently at the end there. Love so many of their products (hoisin especially).

[ernestturner]

I love this channel. You have taught me so much about authentic Chinese cuisine. Having been to Guangzhou via Kathmandu I got a glimpse of authentic Chinese cuisine..Thank you for your videos..

[CookinWithSquirrl]

Many of these items and even the brands were suggested in Kenji's The Wok cookbook and I have just recently stocked all of them. It is awesome to see the confirmation of those items here!

[larryleventhal]

Welcome to Bangkok!
I cook Chinese style food almost every week here.
I am curious about the Sichuan peppercorns you bought. How are they? When I've bought them in the past here, they were weak and tasteless. I had to order online. That shop is great, however. I will look for them next time I go to Chinatown.
Also, there is a brand of peanut oil made in Thailand that is pretty good.
It's a little sad, but I used to get some really nice, small production soy sauce and Chinese vinegar made by Thai-Chinese people here. Great quality -- better than many of the standard Chinese brands available here -- and very low prices. Keep your eyes peeled, but I haven't seen them in a while.
The best soy sauce I have yet to find here is a bit expensive and from Taiwan. It's kept in the back room of one of the little shops on that market street you were at.
If you're interested, I sent you a message on Instagram. Perhaps we can meet in Chinatown for shopping and lunch. I am interested in what you think of some of my finds there.

[joshuasims]

This is so useful, especially for categorizing ingredients and understanding their role in dishes!

[reptilezsweden]

Living in a small town in Europe makes cooking chinese food an adventure because at most you have a tiny all purpose "asian store". To get to an actual asian supermarket (like half the size of the one in the video) I would have to travel 300km