Bon anniversaire!

So… You’ve been saying you want to try cooking more and you like East Asian food. I’ve put together some chili and spices I thought you might not have and some recipes they go in.

Doubanjiang

Fermented spicy bean sauce from Sichuan, China. I went with Pixian doubanjiang, because it’s named after the town of Pixian and pretty well known as a good type of spicy bean sauce. Transfer to a jar and keep in the fridge after you open it and it should last a few months. This and the Sichuan peppercorns are used in Mapo Tofu.

Sichuan Peppercorns

China, Sichuan Province. I could only find whole peppercorns on short notice, but the flavor keeps better anyway. Toast them and then whack them with a saucepan or maybe next year I’ll get you a mortar and pestle. Who knows. Apparently they taste kind of tingly. As baby who doesn’t eat a lot of spice, I wouldn’t know.

Gochugaru

Korean red pepper powder. I thought you might already have gochujang, so I went with gochugaru. Mild to moderate korean chili powder. Here I’ve included a garlic chili noodle recipe to use it in, but just add it to stuff for a little bit of spice.

Soy Sauce

I went for a small bottle of light soy sauce. It’s flexible and will be in basically every asian dish.

Sesame Oil

I’m hoping you don’t already have a bottle. But this can and should go on everything. Stir fry, ramen, instant noodles, fried rice.

Yuzu Kosho

Japanese. A paste made from yuzu, japanese citrus, chili peppers and salt. Turns out it’s really hard to find on short notice. But I found a place I could get some online. But uhh it’s not here yet. I’ve included a chicken recipe to use this with, but I think it would be nice as a dip.

Kopiko Candies

Surely you know what these are. I would have committed a murder to get these in high school.