Buying Chinese Ingredients - Which Ingredients Do You Buy at a Chinese Grocery?

This is just a small selection of all the ingredients available at a Chinese grocery.

Sauces and Seasonings:

• Bean sauces (brown bean sauce, yellow bean sauce, etc.)
• XO Sauce
• Sesame Paste
• Black rice vinegar
• Red rice vinegar
• Rice wine**
• Szechuan peppercorn
• Black sesame seeds (also available at health food stores)

Fresh Chinese Vegetables:

• Garlic Chives, Yellow Chives
• Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan)
• Bitter Melon
• Fuzzy Melon
• Snow Pea Shoots
• Chinese Celery
• Chinese Eggplant
• Chinese Longbeans
• Water Chestnuts
• Bamboo Shoots
• Silk Squash
• Lotus Root and much more

Dried vegetables:

• Dried Mushrooms (Black mushrooms, Shiitake mushrooms, etc.)
• Dried Lily Buds
• Cloud Ear Fungus
• Wood Ear Fungus

Dried Goods:

• Tapioca starch, wheat starch and other starches
• Tapioca flour, water chestnut flour
• Glutinous rice (sweet rice, sticky rice)

Tofu:
You'll find Chinese tofu packed in water-filled tubs, along with different types of bean curd such as fermented tofu, tofu puffs and dried bean curd sheets.

Exotic Asian fruit in season, from Durian to Rambutan and more.

**Drinking quality rice wine can be hard to find. Instead of using cooking quality rice wine from a Chinese grocery, many people prefer to substitute dry sherry (available at most liquor stores). *