When I decided to concentrate on Sichuan recipes from Land of Plenty, I had to refresh my Chinese larder. (And refresh my scanty knowledge of Chinese characters.) This meant spending a good evening scouring the aisles of a Chinese grocery store, squinting at labels, and trying to decide which of the many nearly identical yet somehow different bottles of this or that was actually what I was looking for.
Picture it like this: you're from, say, a non-English speaking country, and you've come to the States. You've been invited to a BBQ and you decide to be helpful by offering to shop for any missing foods. You're handed a list and off you go to a giant American grocery store. One of the items on the list is mustard. You ask around and someone points you to the right place, but to your horror there are several dozens of different products all claiming to be mustard. Do you get the Kraft? Or how about the dijon? There's honey mustard, and stone ground mustard, and German mustard, and what's with that purple one called moutarde violette? Which one is the right one? The answer is, of course, that any of them could be the right one — it just depends on your tastes, and what you plan to do with it.
That's how I view the confusion I can feel in an Asian grocery store. Not only are some of the foods unfamiliar, but each one is often represented by multiple brands, and there may even be brands representing regional variations, such as pickled chiles from Sichuan or Hunan or Thailand... And just like the U.S., different brands may be of higher or lower quality. Oyster sauce is a good example of this. High quality oyster sauce contains oyster extracts, and not as the last ingredient on the list! (Vegetarians look for "oyster" sauces specifically labled as "vegetarian" or "mushroom.") Compare the Lee Kum Kee brand to others to see the difference.
There are a lot of ingredient catalogs out there on the Internet, but not so many that show what the bottles look like or what characters to look for on labels. So to assist my fellow English-speaking cooks who face the same challenge, I have assembled a short catalog with pictures to help identify some of the ingredients. I've left out the common ingredients, on the assumption that most people can find such things as oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and hoisin sauce. As a complete catalog could take a while, I've decided to break it down into sections. My next post will be chiles and chile pastes.
Delurking to ask a question. I have an acquaintance who warned me not to buy food items that were manufactured in the People's Republic of China. She told me that there are no FDA-type regulations covering the foods that are shipped abroad, and that they are not readily checked upon arriving in the US. She also told me that foods manufactured in Hong Kong are fine, but to beware of the stuff made in China. Any light you could shed on this would be welcome as I cook my share of Asian cuisine and have a large Asian store I frequent. Thanks!
Posted by: NJSue | February 19, 2007 at 07:04 PM
I have an acquaintance who warned me not to buy food items that were manufactured in the People's Republic of China. She told me that there are no FDA-type regulations covering the foods that are shipped abroad, and that they are not readily checked upon arriving in the US.
Alarmist nonsense. How many news stories have you ever read about people being poisoned by PRC products? Zero. And the media goes apeshit for these kinds of stories.
Besides, how do you screw up soy sauce or dried mushroom?
Posted by: tyskytsyk | February 19, 2007 at 10:08 PM
Besides, how do you screw up soy sauce or dried mushroom?
That isn't the strongest argument; there are countless ways to screw up soy sauce -- all kinds of things could be in it -- and I can think of a few great ways to screw up dried mushrooms.
That said, Kitchen Chick and I didn't avoid eating when we were actually in the PRC (more like, we ate everything in sight!), and we don't avoid their products now.
I do take the point -- PRC regulation around health issues is notoriously lax -- but I think the risks are really very low. As the poster above says, we haven't heard of any health incidents in the US involving those products, and I'd think we would have. (Incidentally, I also wouldn't treat origin labels as completely reliable. HK is now part of the PRC, and a lot of goods come through there from the mainland.)
Short answer: for stuff like oyster sauce or soy sauce, where you're going to use a lot of it, buy high-quality brands you trust. Everything else, eat without fear in moderation. The restaurants you go to buy from the same suppliers and use the same ingredients, after all.
Posted by: Joe | February 19, 2007 at 10:54 PM
You should investigate one of the food books in my food library: The Asian Grocery Store Demystified by Linda Bladholm. It's a great resource.
Posted by: Solomon James | February 20, 2007 at 01:34 AM
As someone who goes to China regularly, my concern with eating their food would be the incredibly lax environmental standards there. Every river in China (and hence every irrigation canal) is tremendously, shockingly polluted, as is the air. And God knows what pesticides they use. Does that affect the food? Obviously I eat it when I'm there, but I do hesitate when I pick something up here. I don't see how Hong Kong is the answer either- they have almost no agriculture and so are getting their raw ingredients from the PRC anyway. Maybe Taiwan would be better, as they actually have some arable land.
Posted by: Scott | February 20, 2007 at 11:30 AM
Hello! I am very much looking forward to your first installment on chiles and chile pastes.
Posted by: sarrica | February 20, 2007 at 04:57 PM
It's coming!
Posted by: Joe | February 21, 2007 at 06:33 PM
if you post some pictures of the product, i can translate what it says on the label for you. but keep in mind that sometimes the label does not reflect what's in the product. i find that annoying too even though i can read what it says. i usually ask my friends or the store clerk if they have tried the product before.
Posted by: miranda | February 22, 2007 at 01:17 PM
Wow, I totally love this blog. It’s so clean, professional looking, and I love the recipes to be found here! You totally have a new reader! And dreamy pictures too!
Posted by: home cook | February 25, 2007 at 08:45 AM
My parents immigrated from China to the States over 2 decades ago. And though we have tons of Motherland pride, even they stopped buying many products from PRC.
A few years ago, there was a news story about babies dying of malnutrition in China. As it turns out, a company making "baby formula" was putting in flour/starches and not what infants actually needed for nutrition. So . . . though I agree that for the most part, the foods are probably safe, I'm sure there's a few bad apples out there trying to skimp on quality and make extra bucks.
Love your post by the way. I was at Hua Xing for over an hour this weekend trying figure out which brand of fish sauce is good. Any tips?
Posted by: CafAholic | February 27, 2007 at 03:05 PM
CafAholic: then it's a good thing we're not buying PRC baby formula! The owner of a Thai grocery store (no longer open sadly) recommended the "squid brand" to me some years ago. You'll recognize it by the giant squid on the label.
Posted by: Kitchen Chick | February 27, 2007 at 07:56 PM