The 16 Best Ingredients to Buy at an Asian Supermarket

Rice

I cook so much rice at home, it feels absurd — not to mention absurdly expensive — to buy it one to two pounds at a time. I crave the security that comes from hoisting a 15-pound bag of Kokuho Rose rice over my shoulder and making it rain into the five-gallon food-grade bucket I use for rice storage at home. (And no, I’m not a prepper, I just love rice!)

In addition to selling rice in bulk, Hometown offers an unbeatable selection, which includes my go-to short-grain white rice and long grain rice (like jasmine and basmati), as well as brown, red, black, sweet, and sticky rice, sourced from the U.S. and from all over the world.

Miso paste

A big tub of miso paste in the refrigerator is all manner of deliciousness waiting to happen. A spoonful adds savory oomph to dressings and sauces; creates a punchy marinade for fish, meat, and poultry; and deepens soups — and, of course, you need it to make miso soup. I don’t ever want to be sparing with my miso, so I buy it in larger quantities and at a lower price per pound at the Asian grocery store, which carries white, red, and awase styles.

Yuzu extract

I stumbled across this gem when looking for ponzu sauce several years ago, and have been hooked ever since. This yuzu extract from Shirakiku (a Japanese company that sells various sauces and seasonings) contains just one ingredient: yuzu juice. Yuzu is a type of citrus with a punchy, zippy flavor that lands somewhere between a mandarin orange and a Meyer lemon, and has a sweet, floral fragrance. The fresh fruit is hard to come by, but this bottled product captures its essence well. I love to use it in place of lemon juice in all kinds of recipes. It’s particularly wonderful in cocktails.

Instant ramen

I like to have a couple of packets of ramen around for moments when there’s just no time to cook. While instant ramen is easy to find at big brand grocery stores, Asian supermarkets often carry brands and flavors you won’t find elsewhere, making it possible to try out different styles and flavors. On a recent visit to mine, I clocked instant ramen brands from Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and Korea, in flavors ranging from familiar to new-to-me ones I’m excited to try out, like tamarind.

Coconut milk

Most groceries carry canned coconut milk, but for the best deals and a wider selection of brands, I buy coconut milk at the Asian grocery store, which carries high-quality Thai brands like Aroy-D and Mae Ploy, among others. It’s the only shop where I’ve seen 98-ounce cans of coconut milk for sale — at the very affordable price of 16 cents per ounce.

Japanese curry blocks

Yes, I’ve made Japanese curry from scratch (and it’s lovely!), but I cannot get over the ease and deliciousness of these store-bought curry blocks. To use them, you simmer your meat and veggies in water until tender, then add the spiced roux blocks, which melt into the liquid and produce a sumptuous, thick, well-spiced curry dinner. Vermont Curry is my favorite, but Golden Curry is a close second. After years of winging it, I recently followed the recipe as written on the curry box, and was pleasantly surprised to discover it was wonderful.

Vietnamese rice paper sheets and rice noodles

One of my favorite warm-weather meals requires no cooking: Vietnamese rice paper rolls. And the two key ingredients for making them — Vietnamese rice paper sheets and Vietnamese rice noodles (maifun) — sit side-by-side on a shelf at Hometown. The sheets are stiff, very thin, translucent, and about the size of a dinner plate. Submerging them briefly in warm water softens them into stretchy, pliable wrappers for lettuce, herbs, proteins, and rice noodles. The rice noodles also “cook” almost instantly, requiring only a short soak in water — they’re perfect for summer days when I don’t want to turn on the stove.

Oyster sauce

This stuff is liquid gold. Actually, it’s liquid oysters – made from oyster broth that’s cooked down until oyster juices caramelize, producing a thick syrup. I have only been able to find my favorite one, the Thai brand Megachef Premium Oyster Sauce (the best oyster sauce out there, if you ask me) at Asian grocery stores.

Soy sauce

I go through soy sauce quickly. My oldest daughter likes to drizzle it on fried eggs, and it’s a key ingredient in my favorite all-purpose salad vinaigrette. In cold weather months, I go through soy sauce on fast-forward: it’s one of the main ingredients in one of my favorite Japanese comfort foods, nikujaga, a simple stew of ground beef and potatoes in a broth flavored with soy sauce, brown sugar, and fresh ginger. The tiny bottles at most grocery stores don’t cut it for me, so I make sure to pick up a liter-sized bottle of traditionally brewed Kikkoman soy sauce when I’m running low. 

Snacks

I’m a fiend for senbei, Japanese rice crackers, and make sure to grab a couple of my favorite kinds. At the top of my list are nori maki arare, crunchy rice crackers about the size and shape of my pinkie finger basted in soy sauce and wrapped in crisp seasoned nori. I always buy a couple of bags of kaki no tane (also known as kaki-pi), crescent-shaped rice crackers meant to resemble persimmon seeds (‘kaki’ is Japanese for persimmon) seasoned with soy sauce and chili. I also love Calbee Shrimp Chips, and if I spot any international potato chips from China or Taiwan, I snap those up, too.

Tamarind pods

I have two kids at home, ages 10 and 14, and one of their favorite things from the Asian supermarket is sweet tamarind. I buy whole, ripe tamarind pods, which are sold by the box. The kids simply crack the shells open (they peel very easily) and eat the sweet pulp right out of it. It has a sweet-sour, fruity taste, similar to fruit leather, and makes a fun, nutritious, and easy after-school snack.

Herbs

Nothing makes me more irritated than those little .75-ounce plastic packages of fresh herbs at the grocery store — the cost for just a smidge of herbage is ridiculous, and the excessive packaging feels wasteful. To avoid going full Hulk at the Publix, I save herb shopping for Hometown, where the year-round selection of fresh herbs includes everything you might find at a big brand grocery store, as well as harder-to-find options like tarragon, Thai basil, shiso, curry leaf, lime leaf, and rau ram. All are sold in generous bundles and at an accessible price point. Clearly, these are herbs meant for cooks who plan to use a lot of them.

Mushrooms

Big brand grocery stores have, for the most part, expanded their mushroom offerings beyond the ubiquitous white button mushrooms. But for the best selection of fresh and dried mushrooms, the Asian grocery store can’t be beat. Mine offers shiitake, oyster (and king oyster), enoki, straw, maitake, shimeji, button, and straw mushrooms. 

There’s a whole additional world of fungi in the dried vegetables section, where I head for a pillow-case-sized bag of dried shiitake mushrooms that I can use in everything from lo mein to tonkotsu ramen to cream of mushroom soup, or for dried wood ear mushrooms, a classic ingredient in hot and sour soup. On my last visit, I noticed that the dried mushroom section also includes dried morels, chanterelles, cordyceps, nameko, sparassis, and straw mushrooms, but I don’t know how to cook with those — yet.

Daikon

These mild-flavored radishes are delicious in miso soup, and are also great in a number of salads and quick pickles. I’ve yet to see them at my local Publix, but Hometown stocks massive specimens (a foot or more in length) for about a dollar per pound.

Tofu

As eggs get more expensive, I’ve been cooking more tofu scrambles for breakfast. While most big brand grocery stores carry tofu these days, they don’t always stock the full spectrum of silken, soft, firm, and extra-firm types of tofu that East Asian grocery stores are likely to offer. Scrambles and stir-fries call for firm tofu, which can hold up to the high heat cooking method, but I also enjoy stocking up on tofu at the other end of the textural spectrum – silken tofu, which has a more pudding-like texture, for miso soup or for eating hiyayako-style, chilled.

Frozen dumplings

Shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, chicken dumplings, veggie dumplings — I love them all, but rarely have time to make dumplings from scratch. When I’m at Hometown, I always make sure to pick up a bag of frozen dumplings to use in quick weeknight soups, or to serve on their own alongside a dipping sauce.