Stocking A Pantry For Asian Cooking
You do not need a specialty market to cook well across Asia. With nine to twelve pantry items, you can move comfortably between Korean bibimbap, Thai green curry, Chinese stir fries, and Japanese teriyaki bowls.
Start with three soy sauces (light, dark, and tamari), oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and chili crisp. Add fresh aromatics like ginger, garlic, and scallions, plus jasmine and sushi rice in the cupboard.
Once you have these in place, weeknight cooking transforms. A single chicken breast becomes pad thai, gochujang chicken bowls, or a teriyaki rice bowl with almost no extra shopping. Your wok and your pantry, working together, are surprisingly powerful.