Hi everyone, welcome to Pot Luck Food Talks. Today we're going to talk about Asian supermarkets. So what's your, what are your thoughts on Asian supermarkets? Well, I mean, I love Asian supermarkets, you know, it's like being a kid in a toy store. I feel like every time you go, you find something new. Yeah, man. And I actually, wherever I live, I always have like a go-to Asian supermarket.
And it's always a special moment when I go there because it's usually when I want to cook something like in that flavor direction. And you usually end up buying more than what you just wanted because you always find like something that gives you ideas about doing something new. Yeah, yeah, totally. Like I often like kind of go for like one thing. I'm sort of like, oh, I need more sesame oil. And I stand in front of the aisle and I'm sort of like, what the fuck is this?
You know, and then like, you kind of look at it and you're like, what? Okay, I have to take it. I have to try it. And then you go along, you're trying to find the sesame oil and you're like, oh, what the hell? What is this? Like weird little fermented fish heads, I'll take you, you know, it's always really fun. I also remember as a kid, not only Asian supermarkets, like I grew up in Caracas, the Chinese food in Caracas for me is the best one I've tried in the world. Oh, wow.
Of course, I haven't been in Asia, but I mean, even in New York, Europe, no question about, I haven't seen like a proper Chinese restaurant in Europe. Peru has good ones, but for me, the best one I've tried is in Venezuela. And it's also something I really crave. And when I go back, I always go to like a good Chinese restaurants over there. And there is this neighborhood called El Bosque and they had like this Chinese market. This wasn't like a supermarket.
It was more like a market market where there were vendors also selling street food and also all kinds of condiments and ingredients. And I always have like good memories about it. Yeah, I heard that there's like lots of Chinese expats living in like Latin America. I noticed like whole subcultures in like South America, right? Yeah, well, in Peru, they have their own, you know, like Chinese cuisine that is called xifa or chaufa. I've heard both ways of naming it.
And there is like this Chinatown in Lima that is quite big. And it's like, it's like really a Chinatown. Everybody is Chinese inside there. In Venezuela, as I mentioned, I grew up and there were always like a Chinese community in Caracas and also in every every other city, there was always like a Chinese restaurant and it was mostly Cantonese.
But of course, with the whole political thing in Venezuela, that this socialism and they became like very strong allies with China, this has become times 20. Now you go to Venezuela and there are like Chinese that are moved like only 15 years ago and they already speak fluent Spanish. And it's like a complete new generation of Chinese, you know, like in a complete different thing. And you will see them like in all kinds of public works doing like anything.
But yeah, going back to the topic, Chinese supermarkets or Asian supermarkets for me is always super interesting and funny as well, because I've been there with actual Asian people and they laugh about it. It's like, oh, you don't name this like this or and I guess it's the same. I've seen like, I don't know what was it in a supermarket in Germany. There was this mango juice and it was called mango tango, you know, because tango is so Latin American and mango also.
It was like, no, man, no, this is so wrong. And so it's not like that. And I guess these kind of names, you will find the same in Asian, but we just don't notice it, you know? Yeah, for sure. For sure. It must be really weird, kind of like, you know, because also I guess like what people want, you know, it's like totally different. Like for one Asian supermarket, it's obviously catered to the immigrated, you know, communities, but then also like to what the local people want to buy, I suppose.
Do you have any standard go-to ingredients that you find in and that you buy in an Asian supermarket? Yeah, I have a couple of things that even if I have some at home, I see it, I kind of still have to buy it. I think my number one thing is, as probably you'll guess already, because you know me a little bit, is Lao Gan Ma, which is this like brand of chili oil and like preserves.
It's got this like angry looking grandma on the front and I think I'm pronouncing it right, a little Lao Gan Ma and they have a range of stuff, but it's just like, it's usually things preserved in chili oil and it's so addictive and so tasty that even if I still have like a whole jar at home, I might see one and just take it.
Like my favorites are they have fermented black beans in chili oil with this like chili crisp and that's super tasty because the black beans are like salty and funky and sweet and you have the crunchy chili and garlic and stuff. They also have like fermented tofu and kohlrabi in chili oil, which is also really nice, really weird. I haven't seen that one.
Yeah, it's also really good, but I think the best one has to be the like crispy chili oil that it just has like chicken flavor and I don't know where the chicken flavor comes from. I mean, we know where the chicken flavor comes from, comes from, you know, a little sprinkle of the good stuff, but it's just so tasty. You can put it on anything. Yeah, you introduced me to that one and now it's like a new necessity I have. I can't live without having it like in my pantry. It's like a must.
Yeah, it's dangerous because it's like, because I put it on everything, you know, I'll like make a fried egg and I'll put, you know, chili oil on it. I'll make like potatoes, roast potatoes. I'll put the chili oil in it. Then everything like after a while you look back at your week and you're like, man, every day I eat chili oil. It's not really good for you. My go-to ingredients are usually were of course soy sauce and I usually have like four or five types of soy sauce.
Always like one or two Japanese ones and the other one's Chinese. I lately I've been buying one that also has like, it's like a mushroom soy sauce. Pretty good. Then all these fermented soybeans. My favorite one is one from a brand called Healthy Boy. Oh yeah, Healthy Boy. And that's the one we use. You remember to make this wok of Swiss chard. The Sichuanese Swiss chard that I got from, what's the name of this outdoor? Fuxia Dunlop. Fuxia Dunlop. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. She's pretty cool.
Like her books have a way of translating Chinese cuisine to Western audiences and I found it pretty interesting. For sure. Then what else? I usually get kimchi base. Oh yeah. That's something I use a lot. That's really versatile also because you see the thing with like Asian supermarkets is that we don't have the like cultural background to know exactly what the things are used for, right? So I feel like often kind of when you find ingredients, you're more free in like using them.
So you see like a sauce and you're kind of like, I have no idea what traditionally this is used for. So you taste it and you're like, oh cool, this could be good for this or this could be good for that. Exactly. Like kimchi base, like it makes sense. We all know kimchi but still you can use it for like marinating meats or you know, like mixing it into a mayonnaise or something like that. It is super nice. Yeah. And that's exactly what I do.
Like I would add that just a little bit to anything just to turn it up, you know? Yeah. Then there is the equipment section and there you will find like woks, Chinese cleavers, chopsticks, cooking chopsticks, baskets to cook ramen, like all kinds of stuff that I also usually have at home. Also steaming baskets. Yeah. Super useful. I go ham in the sort of place, like even like the spatulas, like usually I have like little baskets with like spatulas and like spoons and stuff.
And also like what I really like is like the ceramics, like the little bowls, you know, usually with the like really sort of like cheesy standard like blue painting on it. But I love just having like a stack of those at home for like using as like little like misan blast containers and it's like when I'm cooking. But yeah, I also, I have a huge thing for Chinese cleavers. I think Chinese cleaver is amazing.
It's like difficult to use for me because I'm not a trained Chinese chef, but I find them like, I just love them. Yeah. It's super cool. You have to change your mindset about using a knife because it's different. Like a pro Chinese chef can peel a garlic clove with those things. Yeah. And like to do that, you need to understand how to use it because it's not the same as a Western knife. Yeah, for sure.
Like you see the thing is that like often I feel like the stuff that they sell on display is not really the good stuff. And I experienced this one time when I was in London, where I was living there and Chinatown, they had a huge row of like really great supermarkets, but like really, really good ones where you would find super top quality ingredients like, you know, Buddha's hand and different types of like ginger from Thailand and stuff like that. And it was great.
And one time I was cooking with a chef and he was really into Chinese food and he had this really beautiful Chinese cleaver. And I was like, oh, where did you get it? And he was like, oh, I just got it in Chinatown and this is displaced. And I was like, oh really? I'll have to check it out. He said, yeah, but you have to go to the guy at the counter and you have to ask them for it because they had like five different types of Chinese cleavers on display.
But when you ask the guy, he's got two more that are hidden, sort of like you have to unlock it. They have one for slicing and one for chopping. Right. And he was like, you can try to go there and like ask him about it, but he might not give it to you, you know? And so I went there and I asked the guy, he was sort of like, yeah, I'm looking for a Chinese cleaver. And he was like, yeah, Chinese cleaver is over there. I'm like, no, no, I mean like the nice ones. They're nice. They're nice.
They're super nice. Like, but you know, trying to get me into buying it and I was like, man, I know you have them hidden. And then he started this whole argument with me. He was sort of like, you don't know how to use it. Like, why do you want to buy the nice cleaver? You don't know how to use it. Like, man, just, just let me buy the knife, man. Like I want to give you my money. Yeah. Just, just give it to me. I gave it to me in the end.
I remember a long time ago when I was at culinary school, there was a, an article from Wiley to frame, you know, the chef from WD 50. Yeah. And he was talking about Chinese cleavers and how he started using them and also his team and how he started using it also to, to work with poultry. And that's also something difficult to do, you know, to take the, the, the duck breasts with that kind of thing and doing it properly.
I also remember in the, the only three star restaurant where I worked, the head chef would do the fish also with a Chinese cleaver. Oh yeah. And I think that's, that's pretty badass to, to do fish with, with that thing. It's really badass. Like it reminds me when I was in Japan and they were doing everything. They had these beautiful custom made Yanagi bars, which are like these like long one side bevel slicing knives, but they would just use them for everything.
At one point this guy was like peeling radishes, like breakfast radishes. And he had this like 33 centimeter long knife just like peeling radishes. That's really badass. Also talking about the Asian supermarkets, it reminds me one of the most creative and influential Latin American novelists of the last generations, a San Argentinian called Cesar Aira. And he usually writes only with small publishers, so his books are pretty hard to find, especially in Europe.
But he has this novel called Marmón and it's about a guy that enters an Asian supermarket. And then he discovers like there's this whole conspiracy that this is actually like a headquarter for aliens and all the Asians are actually aliens. I mean that, that sounds borderline racist, but what it sounds like.
Basically it sounds kind of racist, I understand, but also like the symbology of it, I can understand it because usually when you go into an Asian supermarket, it's really something like from another planet. I mean, no offense, but I mean everything is completely different. The products, the alphabet, like everything. So I kind of get it to make that game, you know, and at the end of the day, it's just a novel. Yeah, for sure.
I also like, you know, I love the freezer section at Asian supermarkets, you know, because Oh yeah. Oh my god. Do you have any favorites there? Yeah, like, I mean, I often, okay, so there's obviously different parts in the freezer section. There's the like ready-made stuff, like yodas and dumplings and shumai. I always get the frozen yodas when I go to one of these places. I always stock up because it's so good.
Like, you can just like pop a steam basket on, throw some dumplings in there and like you're done and like, you know, they get really, really delicious. Yeah. Yeah. But like also, you know, especially in Korean supermarkets, the like frozen meat section is insane. Okay. Yeah. It's like super nice quality beef and pork, like sliced super perfectly with like really intense marbling.
And it's like often you get it like really, really cheap, like really beautiful pork belly because you know, in Korea, they're like obsessed with pork belly and it's like already sliced, I guess for like the sort of grilling that they do because they have just like raw thin slice of pork belly that they grill from raw, which is also something that we don't do in the West. Like usually pork belly gets braised or you know, steamed or something like that before you cook it.
But yeah, that's always really, really good. And often when I'm at the supermarket there, I just take like five, six packets of meat and just have them in the freezer. There's also like the candy section where there are like this non-vegan candies that are like, I don't know, like pork or chicken skin. Oh yeah. But sweet like in this kind of super delicious actually, but also something completely different from the West. You won't see any, you know, animals made candies. Yeah, for sure.
I remember one thing that I saw, I think it was also in Japan was this like squid candy where they take, they make like beef jerky, but sweet, but with squid. And it's like super, super traditional, you know, it's like, I mean, more than traditional, but it's like really popular and it's just like a snack that you get like cuttlefish candy. That's pretty cool. I usually also get sushi rice or Korean rice, these kinds of things. Yeah, for sure.
I mean, I was, when I was an apprentice, I lived over, I was so poor at one point, I just went to an Asian supermarket and bought a 20 kilo bag of sushi rice and just lived off that for like a month because the bag was like, I don't know, it was like 30 quid or something and I just had no money and I would just need something to eat. You know, since the last time that we had like the sushi episode and you asked me, do you ever make sushi at home? And I had like a sushi rice.
So I started like, you know, doing just like some sushi rice with some nori leaf and putting whatever on top, just as you would do like a sandwich, you know, like something really routine-ary, just to have like a quick snack. And it's actually pretty cool to do that. Yeah, totally. I think I don't have it at the moment, but one of my next buys is definitely like a nice rice cooker, like a Japanese or Korean rice cooker, you know, because I think it's so nice.
I saw it a lot in Japan where people would just make like a donabe style rice pot, just like nice rice, sometimes like a little bit like water that's like maybe seasoned or like very lightly and then just like seasonal ingredients into it and they just like cook into the rice and then you have this like, for example, like edamame and anchovy rice and it's just like super fresh and oh nice and really, really nice. And it's just really a wholly kind of convenient cooking.
What about the fresh section? I usually get their Chinese cabbage, bok choy, bok choy, those kinds of things. Also mushrooms like shiitakes and okis. I actually get whatever there is. There is also like this steam and tem salad. I don't know if you know what I mean. Something that looks like a huge asparagus and tastes like a salad if you would eat like the stem of the salad, but nice. Oh yeah. What else? Pandanus leaves, those kind of things. Have you been to Vinloy in Berlin, in Berlin?
Vinloy? No, I don't think so. It's a pretty big one, I remember, and they have like lots of things like it's in Vedding and Reinigendorf if I'm not wrong. Oh yeah, and like Kohl, they've got one in Kohlfursen down there, I'm just seeing now. So they've expanded. I think they had both already. I have to go there actually because I've been dying to go to Asian supermarket actually. You know there used to be this huge like Vietnamese market outside of the city. Ah, that's pretty crazy.
They have that in Berlin exactly. It's like a huge market and it's all Vietnamese. Yeah. Like I went there once and you know when I've been like in Asian markets and other cities, it's usually all Chinese, but all Vietnamese is quite unusual. Yeah, for sure. It burned down like a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it was really sad because that was like an amazing place. It's like a big warehouse situation, you know, like roofed over. And yeah, it's just like a culinary wonderland.
Yeah, there's a huge Vietnamese community in Berlin. That's probably the reason why the only good Asian restaurants are Vietnamese because everything else is not so good. That's true. I mean like back in the day, it was like there was a real cult following of sort of like where you could get the best pho. You know, everybody had an opinion. I remember there was a good pho place like around where you were living in O'Connor, right?
Yeah, it was like a super non-pretentious place, but I would go there a lot, man. Yeah, I mean it's a perfect food, you know, it's super fresh, super nice. What about booze? Do you get any booze in Asian supermarkets? You know, not really booze. I mean, I get Shaoxing wine for cooking and stuff. Okay, exactly. Or Mirin or this kind of stuff or even sake, but to cook, not to drink. Yeah, I mean, Mirin and sake for sure. Sometimes I also get it for drinking.
I mean, but I wouldn't, I usually don't get sake for drinking in an Asian supermarket. I would get it somewhere else. That's true. That's true. It's definitely a much better idea to get it from somewhere else because usually they only have the cheap stuff. But like I have a soft spot for Atsukan, which is like hot sake. Okay. I think that's how you call it anyway, if I remember. But yeah, hot sake.
And usually like you don't use the good quality sake for hot sake, but it's just very nice having hot sake. And I have like very fond memories of drinking hot sake. So sometimes I like buy a cheap bottle and just heat it up. What about this place that used to be in North Croyd that was like a sake store? Does it still exist? You know what I'm talking about? Oh, I think I do. Was it like a little bar sort of thing? Yeah, like a little store, super peaky with super nice stuff.
Wasn't it called like the sake, like sake trader or sake import or something like that? Something like that. And they had like just very high quality stuff. Sake Contour. What's the name? Sake Contour. Okay. There's also like, I know a few people making sake in Berlin as well. Oh really? Yeah. And then this famous techno DJ, actually Xander, our producer interviewed him for another podcast. What's the name of this guy? I don't remember. Like a super influential techno DJ.
Yeah. I mean, it's like, there's a few really interesting things going on in Berlin. There's this Japanese guy who does like traditional Japanese fermentation and he sells his products to like, I mean, basically all like the top restaurants in the city buy from him because he just makes like really proper stuff. Like he makes this buckwheat tamari. I think it is. And it's just like, it's not like the normal tamari that you like buy. It's like really light brown.
Yeah. Can you explain what tamari is for the audience? It's basically a soy sauce. It's a type of soy sauce and usually it's sort of like sweeter and more intense. Usually also gluten free, right? Tamari. Yes. You're absolutely right, Eric. Tamari is gluten free. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And so he makes, he makes this with buckwheat and it's really unusual because it's like very light in color and light in flavor also, but it's really like floral and salty and really delicious.
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