I have been trying to cook more lately, and a great resource I've found to help me level up my game is Sam Low's series, "How to Shop at Your Local Asian Grocer." I love Asian grocery stores and always find new ingredients to try out, but I don't always know the best ways to use them. Sam Low has offered his guidance and expertise to help me incorporate new sauces, pastes, spices, vegetables, and more into my cooking. He's a terrific chef and an equally great teacher, and I've learned so much watching his videos. He states on his website that he created the series "to help demystify the incredible world of Asian grocery stories." He shares that he grew up in a Chinese-Fijian family where he was "surrounded by flavors, ingredients, and traditions" that shaped his love for food, cooking, and community. However, he noticed that many of his friends and family members "felt intimidated" when browsing through the Asian grocery store, "unsure of what to buy or how to use unfamiliar ingredients."
If this describes your experience, you're going to love the series — which now has over 100 episodes — that Low created to bridge the gap in an "approachable, fun, and educational" way.
In the series, he features key ingredients used in Chinese and other Asian cuisines, explains their history and uses, and shares tips about how to be a smart shopper. He's featured fermented bean curd; common Asian greens like gai lan (Chinese broccoli, Brassica oleracea), bok choy (Brassica rapa), and choy sum (Brassica rapa); Chinese rice wine; Chinese vinegars; doubanjiang (fermented chili bean paste); dried black sea moss; jujube (dried red dates); coconut cream and milk; and so much more. And once you've found some new ingredients to work with, you can use them in Low's recipes, which you can find here.
Sam Low was born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand. He's authored cookbooks and won MasterChef, New Zealand in 2022. He explains that he views food as "culture, memory, identity, and resistance" and is "deeply passionate about Chinese gastronomy, third culture identity, and uplifting community through storytelling."
Low states that one of his goals with "How to Shop at Your Local Asian Grocer" is to make Asian grocery stores "less overwhelming" and "more exciting," and I think he's doing exactly that. If you need some inspiration to infuse some excitement and confidence into your cooking, check out his series on his website, Instagram, or YouTube.
Previously:
• The curious history of American Chinese food
• Try these delicious tiger skin eggs
• Iron Chef Dad, Susur Lee, transforms cheap mass produced food into culinary delights
• Grandpa's hilarious reactions to Americanized Chinese foods go viral in new web series
