my actual kitchen
i have so many. when i moved into my current flat i counted and i had around 25. my flatmate bought a spice rack but it doesn't contain all of them.
a list, in a rough order of how often i use them: ground ginger, garlic granules, ground white pepper, msg, cayenne pepper, cumin, chilli powder (this is a blend of cayenne pepper, cumin and oregano), chilli flakes, chinese five spice, cinammon powder, onion granules, bay leaves, paprika, oregano, thyme, rosemary, coriander leaves, ground coriander seeds, black cardamom, green cardamom, garam masala, curry powder, star anise, fennel seeds, cinnamon sticks, cloves, chives, turmeric, smoked paprika, salt.
ginger is definitely my favourite spice (or one of them). most days i end up cooking some kind of fried rice or stir fried noodles, and i put SO MUCH GINGER. it's so good.
msg! i am obsessed with msg! i could talk about msg for days so i won't do that but i will just say that so much of the anti-msg stuff you see in food comes from anti-chinese propaganda and racism, and msg is a salt that occurs naturally in many foods.
in no particular order: vegetable oil, sesame oil (the good shit - ghee hiang brand), chinkiang vinegar, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, white rice vinegar, shaoxing wine, sriracha.
i never really use salt, i'll usually do a combination of soy sauce, mostly fish sauce, and msg. it's just like salt with more flavour i guess. i put msg in most things, if it's savoury, it needs msg.
depending on what i'm cooking, i'll use vegetable oil with a few drops of sesame oil, because the one i have is really strong in flavour.
if i'm stir frying some veg that's mostly when i use oyster sauce, or sometimes i'll use it in a meat marinade.
it wasn't in the list because i don't keep it on the counter but i often use honey (or sometimes brown sugar) to balance flavours if needed.
also, i don't know how to describe these but i have some furikake (japanese rice seasoning with dried seaweed flakes, sesame seeds, bonito) and rice topping that my mum makes with crushed peanuts and salt (that one SLAPS)
on the first shelf is mostly baking stuff i guess? plain flour, bread flour, glutinous rice flour, cornflour, sweet potato starch, baking soda, baking powder, a korean-style tempura flour mix, clear honey, a couple of bánh quẩy (like chinese youtiao) flour mixes, brown sugar, dried mung beans,
second shelf is where i store noodles, pasta, rice etc. currently i have fresh udon, jasmine rice, egg noodles, wholewheat farfalle (bowtie pasta), dinosaur shaped tricolore pasta, bánh phở/5mm rice noodles, what i call jellyfish noodles but i think they're called flower petal noodles, rice vermicelli
i rarely bake, so the flour mostly gets used for when i make dumplings or if i'm making fried chicken or something. i used to only use cornflour to thicken, but i've been experimenting with sweet potato starch and i'm going to try other kinds of starches in future too. i saw online somewhere that cornflour sort of hardens as it cools down, and some other starches don't do that.
the rice noodles have been sitting there waiting for me to get around to cooking proper vietnamese food, but i will one day. i'm planning to make phở at some point soon. i mostly use the udon (for stir fries), jasmine rice, pasta if i'm having guests, egg noodles (for low-effort bowls) and jellyfish noodles (in light broths)
this is kind of just the bits and bobs cupboard. currently it has some tinned beans and veg, maple syrup, tinned tuna, spam, peanut butter, brown seeded bread, a chinese puffed rice snack, a chocolate bar for my boyfriend, pandan extract, so many instant phở stock cubes that my mum keeps giving me, even more instant noodles and various flavours of instant cháo (rice porridge, similar to chinese congee) that my mum keeps giving me, chicken bouillon powder, some weird candy i got for free from longdan, miso sachets, dashi stock.
tea cupboard! in here there is lotus tea, green tea, another green tea, some sleep blend teas, 2 kinds of vietnamese instant coffee, ground coffee trung nguyên brand (popular in vietnam), iron buddha (oolong) tea, pu erh (a type of chinese fermented tea), breakfast tea, matcha, vietnamese milo (choccy milk powder). i keep forgetting to buy jasmine tea. it's probably one of my favourites, lotus tea is really good too, i recommend trying it if you can.
i also store some snacks and booze in here, also big rice bags. right now there's bacardi, 5kg sticky rice, some home brewed wine my friends gave me for my birthday, salted popcorn, some sort of chinese corn snack, and i need to buy some more orion custard pies because i ran out :(
i'll start with the stuff that lives there full time. oyster sauce, peanut lao gan ma (chilli crisp), a jar of minced garlic, lạp xưởng (lap cheong, chinese sausage) sesame paste, gochujang, soybean paste, tomato puree, way too many fresh garlics, fresh ginger, onions, butter, margarine, at least three kinds of cheese at any given time (currently it's camembert, goats cheese and vintage cheddar).
at time of writing i also have some pink lucozade, choccy soya milk, chinese chives, some out of date spring onions that i need to throw out, red grapes, hummus, cucumber, red pesto, chorizo slices, a single egg, some chinese lemon tea my friends brought when they came over for dinner. i really need to get some more veg in... usually i have tenderstem broccoli, cavolo nero kale, green beans, potatoes, sometimes tomatoes. i'm so picky with veg.
