Chinese Grocery Favorites

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My blog is evolving. I used to travel and be interested in luxury goods, now all I do is walk around and buy groceries. I know one day my life will go back to “normal” but another part of me is like, okay, no, this is all you will do. Who knows what it’ll be? So this week I decided to share some of my grocery favorites with you. Yes, the grocery! The only indoors place I have gone besides one very depressed visit to the bagel shop.

I get the most questions about Asian grocery picks so today I’m sharing some of my mainstays, the items I buy the most – this is a topic I’d LOVE to hear your comments on so please at the end please share your thoughts too! I know there are some GREAT cooks on here.

Okay, here we go:

Tomoshiraga Somen noodles: These are my favorite noodles, my mainstay which I always have in my pantry. They are really popular in a lot of Chinese households (and obviously Japanese too as they are Japanese). I’ve been eating them since I was a little kid and and they’ve always been in the same packaging. These noodles heat up super quickly (just a few minutes in boiling water) and are super easy for kids to eat with chopsticks or a fork. And for me to eat too. They really absorb the flavor of any soup you put them in (sometimes a little too much, so I don’t boil the soup with them in it, I instead boil these separately in water and add to the soup at the last minute). Yum!

Lao Gan Ma Chili flakes in oil. These are like the OG of Chinese spices and I love it very much. You can find it this (and the whole Lao Gan Ma line – I know that this is technically a COMPANY but I still think of it as a very stern Chinese LADY) at basically any Asian market. I use these chili flakes for all kinds of things – soups, stir fries, with some rice, anything. Super versatile and great for adding a bit of heat to dishes with a whole lot of taste.

Rice Vinegar. This is my favorite kind (I also have the green bottle which is salt and sugar free but honestly rarely use it). I use this to make sushi rice (detailed instructions/explanation here) but also to make Chinese dishes like hot and sour soup. If you don’t have rice vinegar regular vinegar works or even apple cider vinegar (for soups only, I’ve never tried it for rice).

Yu Shang Cooked Chicken: This is an item that some of you might find strange – it’s a cooked whole chicken that is packaged up and available in the refrigerated section. My kids really like this chicken, and they aren’t huge meat eaters so anytime they like something meat I try and remember. It’s basically a game hen cooked in a bunch of spices – the meat is super tender and I basically shred it off the bone all at once and then use the carcass to make a yummy chicken stock.

I figured some of you would be interested in the ingredients so here they are. I know I could probably do it myself but it’d never taste as good and I’m lazy. The chicken costs around $12 which isn’t cheap but also not expensive. Remember, it’s not like a Costco chicken size – more a small game hen.

Mochi cake mix. OK, I know these aren’t technically available at the Chinese market. But these are my favorite cake mixes to get from Trader Joe’s. I’ve been waiting over a year for them to return!! They are so, so good! BUT I do have to warn that this cake is not for everyone – it’s not really a cake but more like a dense kind of mochi brownie? If you’ve ever had mochi cake from Hawaii or Japan you would know what it tastes like. And the calorie count is truly horrendous (I want to say like a little under 400). BUT I love these. I like to add coconut flakes on top.

Okay – now I must hear from you, what are some of your grocery mainstays? Bonus if it is from an “ethnic” (ugh is there a better word I can use) market!