Tag: asian markets

Online Asian Markets and Food Delivery

Whenever I cook for friends and family I’m always asked about the ingredients I use and where to get them. And since visiting an Asian market alone can be a little overwhelming for some, I decided to put a short introduction together for buying my most common ingredients online. If you’d like to see some recipes first, here are a few on Asianliving.me.

Let’s start with a few well-known online shops in North America:

Amazon.com’s grocery section is loaded with Asian food options.  If you have Amazon prime you obviously won’t have to worry about the cost of shipping. It’s probably worth visiting Amazon first to see if you can find what you are looking for. For those in select areas, you can try Amazon Fresh which is just like Peapod or FreshDirect.

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All Asian

Asian Food Grocer is a trustworthy shop that provides much of what you expect to find in a standard Asian market. Here are a few products that I commonly use in my cooking:

Lee Kum Kee’s Hoisin Sauce is something I use for a sweet, seafood flavor.

Lee Kum Kee also makes a Black Bean Garlic Sauce which I use for home-style pork ribs. Yum!

Actually, just about everything in the Asian Food Grocer’s “Quick and Easy Asian Cooking” section is delicious and, as the title implies, very easy to use.

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Japanese
Sashimi

Marukai’s eStore is a Japanese food shop online which serves North America. Some of my recipes have ingredients that you can find at their shop. Check out their amazing variety of fish options for at-home sushi making!

Also, one Japanese product that I enjoyed a lot in China was Key Coffee’s Drip On brand singles.

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Rice or Bread?

rice and bread
Rice AND Bread

Ah, another timeless rivalry! Why are Asian people so thin when they eat bad-for-you White Rice all the time?? Isn’t Brown Rice better?? Well, I must say that I hate the flavor of brown rice. It tastes like “diet” cream cheese or “low fat” milk. It seems the flavor is missing…don’t you think?

White rice is a staple that Asian people generally find flavorful. It’s the bland base that keeps strongly cooked, but delicious, Asian food from hurting your stomach and body. Anyone familiar with drinking too much alcohol knows what happens when we over-power our bodies with any one thing. And so, too much salt or sugar is obviously not good for you. We need a simple staple, like bread or rice, to balance our systems.

Let me be clear though. I love bread too! Bread is yummy, but you should avoid overly processed breads that are common in American supermarkets and grocery stores. It should be a fresh, crispy baguette for example. The Europeans are getting it right with the way they bake, buy, and consume bread. Bread is not meant to be a shelved for weeks at a time. Make sure your staple is fresh and eat it right away.