I’m lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, where I have access to lots of stores with lots of international ingredients. And these ingredients have become far easier to find in recent years. Still, finding them can still be a hassle, and often times I forget where I actually found a particular ingredient when I need to buy it again. I’m hoping to use this blog post to remind myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Black Truffles<\/strong> I found them at the Berkeley Bowl<\/a> during truffle season, but I wasn’t too impressed with the flavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Candlenuts<\/span><\/a><\/strong> These large nuts are used as thickeners and flavor enhancers in southeastasian cuisine. I have yet to find them in the East Bay, so I’ve substituted with their cousin, macadamia nuts. The latter are sold in bulk at Sprouts<\/a> at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coconut flakes, frozen, I was able to find at both the 88 Manor Markets<\/a> and at Santos Spices<\/a> in San Leandro <\/p>\n\n\n\n Curry leaves<\/a><\/strong> They are regularly sold fresh at Santos Spices<\/a> in San Leandro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dark Soy Sauce<\/a><\/strong> is a darker, thicker and slightly sweet soy sauce mostly used to darken dishes. I’ve found it at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a>. Recipes that call for it include Soy-Glazed Black pepper chicken<\/a> and Lion’s head meatballs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Galangal root<\/a><\/strong> (also spelled galanga) adds a special flavor to Thai\/Indonesian\/Malay dishes. I usually find it at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a> in San Leandro, but it’s often available at the Berkeley Bowl<\/a> as well. It freezes fairly well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Glutinous Rice Flour\/Powder<\/strong> is available at some regular supermarkets, but I got it at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indonesian Bay Leaves<\/span><\/strong><\/a> aka salam leaves. They are different than Indian or western bay leaves, and I haven’t been able to find them locally yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jameed<\/strong><\/a> is a Jordanian yogurt used in sauces. I was able to find it in liquid form at Santos Spices<\/a> in San Leandro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kaffir Lime leaves <\/a><\/strong>are an indispensable element for many southeast Asian dishes. I’d seen them at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a> in the past, but I couldn’t find them last time I needed them, so I bought them off someone on Facebook marketplace who had her own tree. Since then I’ve found that my friends J. & G. have their own tree. The leaves can be frozen, and they seem to retain their flavor well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kecap manis<\/a> <\/strong>is an Indonesian sweet soy sauce. It’s been surprisingly hard to find, but I did find it at the 88 Manor Markets.<\/a> If you can’t find it, you can make your own<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Light Soy Sauce<\/a><\/strong> is the default soy sauce in Chinese cuisine, lighter in color and a bit less salty than the standard Japanese soy sauce. It’s not the same as Kikkoman lite soy sauce. It’s widely available and I found it at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a>. You can substitute with regular or tamari soy sauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shaoxing wine<\/a><\/strong> This cheap, sweet Chinese rice wine is actually not too hard to find, and it’s available at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a>. Recipes that call for it include Braised Winter Melon<\/a>, Braised Pork Belly<\/a>, Walnut chicken<\/a> and Royal Concubine Chicken wings<\/a>. You can substitute with sherry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shrimp paste<\/a><\/strong> This southeast Asian condiment is available at the 88 Manor Markets.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Palm oil<\/strong>. The small 88 Manor Market<\/a> in San Leandro carries several brands of African red palm oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Palm nut sauce<\/strong>. An ingredient in west African recipes can be found at the small 88 Manor Market<\/a> in San Leandro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Palm sugar.<\/strong> Found it at the small 88 Manor Market<\/a> in San Leandro, but not at the large new one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pandan leaves<\/a><\/strong> These leaves are used as wrappers and to flavor food. They are listed as available fresh at the Berkeley Bowl<\/a> and I found them frozen at the small 88 Manor Market<\/a> in San Leandro (couldn’t find them at the new, larger one nearby).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rock Sugar<\/a><\/strong> Chinese rock sugar consists of large yellow sugar crystals and is used to give shine to glaces as well as a sweetener. It’s easily available at Asian supermarkets and I found it at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a> in San Leandro. White rock sugar is available at Santos Spices<\/a> in San Leandro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sweet Bean Paste\/Sauce<\/a><\/strong> These are, theoretically, different sauces, with the former being made primarily of beans and the latter of wheat. However, the sweet bean sauce<\/a> that I found at the 88 Manor Markets<\/a> in San Leandro had beans as its main ingredient. Apparently, despite the different ingredients, you can use the two interchangeably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Turmeric root<\/a>.<\/strong> Fresh turmeric root is an ingredient in many Thai and Indonesian dishes. I’ve found it at Raley’s<\/a>, but it’s also available at supermarkets like Sprouts and the Berkeley Bowl<\/a>. It freezes well, but don’t defrost it before you peel\/use it because it turns to mush. Just peel it frozen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A guide for myself I’m lucky enough to live in the Bay Area, where I have access to lots of stores with lots of international ingredients. And these ingredients have become far easier to find in recent years. Still, finding them can still be a hassle, and often times I forget where I actually found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13],"tags":[67,484,472,351,485],"class_list":["post-2653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-items","category-shops-markets","tag-88-supermarket","tag-berkeley-bowl","tag-raleys","tag-santos-spice","tag-sprouts","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marga.org\/foodblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}