Pantry Staples

This is an unfinished post that will receive additional content and editing in the future.

Overview

There are many foods that you only buy as you need them, or where the exact brand doesn’t matter. And then there are foods where I would rather go hungry than eat the wrong brand.

This post will list two things: key ingredients that I always keep in my kitchen, and any transitory ingredients where I have a strong preference for a particular brand or type.

If you are looking for my cooking instagram, you can find it here.

Sauce Components

Bases

• Kewpie Mayo. If you are used to standard American mayo like Hellmann’s, this will be a life-changing upgrade. I spent several months in 2022 making all my mayo from scratch, but ultimately found kewpie to be an acceptable substitute to homemade, and a massive improvement over the standard American fare. If you buy this from the store, make absolute certain you are not accidentally purchasing the American kewpie formula. Get the original Japanese version which comes in a squeeze bottle inside of a red and white plastic bag.
• Heinz Tomato Ketchup. It’s ketchup. I use it as a quick tomato base for many sauces, and you can do amazing things with it. Do not skimp out on some store brand crap.
• Sour Cream. Works great as a base in white sauces, as a topping, and in marinades.
• Greek Yogurt. You can use this in most applications where you would use sour cream, but you sometimes have to be careful of the flavor, especially if the sour cream was going to be a dominant note. Be extremely careful to not get vanilla thinking you are getting plain.

Vinegars

• Surasang Ume Plum Vinegar. You use this similar to an apple cider vinegar: sweet and light acidity, perfect for elevating greens or adding a light touch to a sauce or mayonnaise. If you see the Shih Chuan version in your store, it is disgusting, don’t bother.
• Seggiano White Balsamic Vinegar. Light and sweet vinegar that is amazing on toppings. You can use this similarly to the ume vinegar.
• Togo-Su Moromisu Moromi Vinegar. Naturally brewed rice vinegar aged in shoyu casks for 5 years. This is a light vinegar with an awesome, barrel aged flavor, similar to a whiskey.
• Mizkan Pure Unpolished Brown Rice Vinegar. A dark, rich flavor that goes great in sauces and on veggies.
• Acetaia Bellei Sua Maestra Denso Dolce Antica Ricetta di Famiglia Balsamic Vinegar. Intense flavor and mild, 4% acidity. You can get this as low as $18 at Fresh Market. This vinegar has forever changed how I view balsamic.

Enhancers

• CinSoy Small Batch Tamari
• Yamaroku Shoyu Tsuru Bishio. Soy sauce that has been barrel aged 4 years, this is a seriously expensive Japanese soy sauce that has a richer and less puckering flavor that the standard Kikkoman. It’s only worth it if you are using it straight on a dish, since once you start cooking with it or mixing it into a sauce the flavor will be lost.
• Cholua Chili Garlic. I love this for adding umami and heat to a sauce.
• Red Boat Fish Sauce. This is an easy classic and widely recommended. Unlike some lesser offerings, it has no offensive fishy smell once mixed into a sauce or cooked. This is similar to soy sauce, but is less salty with a more complex umami flavor.
• Beksul Korean Plum Extract. Put this in sauces to add sweetness and plum flavor.
• Hamchorom Perilla Oil. A more subtle sesame oil. When making sauces with sesame, I often overdo it and the flavor becomes overpowering. This is a good alternative that gives you more leeway in your concoctions.
• Surasang Yuzu Citron Tea with Honey. This is basically yuzu marmalade, and it goes amazing in sauces and deserts. Notably, I will use it with steak, sausage, and dark chocolate deserts.
• Ginger People Fiji Ginger Syrup. This is probably made for cocktails or something, but I use it on ice cream, in sauces, and in marinades. You do need to be careful with it, as it is very sweet.

Grains

• Nishiki Medium Grain Rice. Great all purpose rice for fried rice, bibimbap, or as a side.
• Publix Brioche Hamburger Buns. These come from the publix bakery and are the shit. They can make any sandwich taste twice as good.
• King Arthur All-Purpose Flour. This stuff is great; I keep a container of it at all times.
• King Arthur All-Purpose Bread Flour. Perfect for bread…
• Panko. I haven’t honestly been able to tell a meaningful difference between the various brands of panko I’ve bought. Lately, I’ve been using 4C. This stuff is amazing for breading and frying.

Seasonings

• Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt. This is the gold standard salt for cooking. It’s perfect for hand seasoning and has slowly become the standard used in modern baking recipes.
• Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. These fragile pyramids of delicate, melt-in-your mouth salt are worth every penny, and will elevate cookies, meat, veggies, you name it. You do not use these while cooking, they are added immediately before serving.
• Powdered Spices: Onion, Garlic, Cumin, Coriander, Ginger, Harissa
• Red Pepper
• Whole Spices: Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom, Rosemary

Vegetables

I buy a lot of vegetables on demand for a particular dish: brocoli, carrots, brussels sprouts, asparagus, etc. However some vegetables I keep in the kitchen at all times, since I use them in so many dishes.

• Yellow Onions. Red onions are nice too, but I tend to only use them in raw applications, whereas I will use yellow onions in everything.
• Garlic. You can never have too much garlic. Literally impossible.
• Ginger. Many of the standard grocery stores I visit only have the anemic finger sized ginger roots. I tend to prefer going to the asian markets where you can buy the often palm sized pieces of ginger. They peel nicely and you get a ton of ginger for the effort and for less money. I’ve also had luck buying the larger ginger at the Fresh Market.
• Arugula. The perfect vegetable for salads, sandwiches, and burgers. It has a wonderful intense flavor and a delightful crunch.

Toppings

• Muenster
• Cabot Creamery Vermont Extra Sharp Cheddar. I’m always on the lookout for a good extra sharp cheddar, and this one is easily available at Publix and has a great flavor. I often microplane it and put it on sandwiches and burgers.
• Candied Jalapeños. I get the Pepper Works Candy Krisp variety from the Fresh Market. These are amazing on burgers, sandwiches, and salads. They are sweet and mildly spicy, and have a great crunch.

Baking

• Ghirardelli Premium Baking Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. Wonderful flavor and sweetness, these do great in cookies or on top of greek yogurt.
• Ghirardelli Premium Baking 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips. These come as flat disks instead of the normal Hershey’s Kiss shape, and as a result they melt wonderfully in layers inside of cookies.