Lucas Sin has established himself as the Julia Child for Chinese cuisine. Fuchsia Dunlop, Kenji, Martin Yan, etc have done a great job laying the groundwork to make Chinese cooking approachable but no one is translating the cultural context and mental framework as well as Lucas. Great stuff!
as a 2nd gen cantonese immigrant; I'm still trying to learn about my culinary heritage; really appreciate having all this pantry information in one video (even though I know Lucas could probably make a semester long college course about it). Thank you! Saving this for reference!!
As an ABC myself, can't help but notice that Lucas has strength in both cultures, something I've aspired to since I was young. My Chinese side is there, but his is undoubtedly stronger.
im p sure he grew up in HK. i'm getting wealthy international school kid vibes. it's possible he has ABC parents bc that would explain his american accent and decision to spend establish himself in the US despite HK being more british. i have a hunch he's CBA lol - american parents who got jobs in HK.
Very cool! Would be neat to have a whole series of these, like have a Japanese chef walk you through a Japanese-American grocery store, have an Indian chef walk you through an Indian-American grocery store...etc
I have been so burnt out by cooking/educational videos for the past couple of years and Lucas has single handledly reignited my passion for cooking again. Love to learn and also be entertained at the same time. Thank you!
Lucas just explains food with so much approachability. As a basic home cook who often orders chinese food, he makes me want to organize my pantry and learn more about prepping chinese food at home
I love video's like this. Everyone has his/her own take on ingredients and it's always nice to find out what the differences are and there's always new stuff that others haven't covered. Hoping for a 'next level' videos soon.
Any video Lucas makes is amazing! So informative and makes me want to cook Chinese and I will continue! His tomato egg recipe on this channel is a weekly go-to for us! Please keep them coming!
I think one of the most unique Chinese sugar is maltose syrup. It's used in making long shou tong/dragon beard candy (龍鬚糖), but most importantly, it's the key sugar used in making lotus seed paste. Most English recipes call for brown or black sugar, but real lotus seed paste is made with maltose. Maltose is a unique sugar because it has extremely long-chain polysaccharides that can be pulled like noodles in dragon beard candy, or coiled and blended into lotus paste.
Love this and anything to do with Lucas Sin's in depth technical knowledge ! I would love to see a similar video about other isles in a similar Chinese market - like working through all the varieties of produce or all the spices for example. Thanks for putting it together food52
Asian American born in Brooklyn as someone is half Chinese this was really informative I felt like I was in a lecture in a good way growing up my favorite condiment brand hands down was Lee Kum kee for hosin, oyster sauce etc we always have it stocked
Thai oyster sauce is my new favorite. More complex than the cheap oyster sauce I used to use. Also, a few drops of sesame oil in refried beans is killer. Just a hint of smokiness.
Thank you, Lucas, for this video! I grew up in Taiwan and am familiar with Taiwanese/Chinese cooking, but even so, this video has been very informative, especially since I live in the US now and have a hard time correlating items sold in American Asian groceries and their Taiwanese counterparts. Please make more of these videos!
Oh man. I've cooked a lot of Asian inspired food for a while now. So I do have a lot of these ingredients on hand currently. But this is a great synopsis on what is most important to ALWAYS have on hand. I wish that Lucas, or other chefs that are of the other Asian culinary disciplines would put together one of these for their pantries. Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, etc. MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
If the Food Network or whatever ever plans on making a proper Chinese or Asian program, Lucas should be who they hire to host. Not only is he Asian, which already makes him more qualified than the White and other non-East Asian "experts" they normally have, but he breakdowns and delivers each ingredient or component in such a way that is both engaging and easy to understand. This is the type of diversity we need more of. Not that DEI crap.
This is amazing, thank you! I was planning to hit up an Asian grocer soon and stock up, and luckily it feels like most of this is stuff you can keep around for a long time and use as needed, so there isn't overwhelming pressure to ONLY cook Chinese-style for the next few weeks haha.
Making your own chili crisp is relatively easy but you can find Lao Gan Ma in most super markets these days and I put it on almost everything. My go to snack out of the fridge is a chunk of roast chicken from the market, dipped in a mixture of chili crisp, black vinegar and a little ponzu. And maybe some raw cucumbers and rice if I have the time.
for seasoning soy sauce, i use Japanese Tsuyu soba dipping sauce with infused dry bonito.... there's also a red vinegar that goes really well with wonton noodles for cooking i mostly use peanut oil for extra fragrance... and don't forget your corn or potato starch for thickening.....
Would love to see the hour long version of this! I always get so overwhelmed by all the different preserved and dried condiments there are at an Asian grocery. Not to mention all the specialty sauces, marinades & pastes (e.g. sambals, miso, preserved lettuce & other veg, etc...)
Lol L.S. is so right when shopping at an Asian store for ingredients. I don't speak or read any Asian language, so crazy as it will sound I just go off the pictures of the ingredients that my Mother used growing up. She has passed (R.I.P. in heaven) but she had an extensive pantry. So far I've been lucky
This is why many Asian household fridges are filled with sauce more than anything else. Usually most Asian houses have two fridges.. One for sauce and the other for everything else. Lee Kum Kee brand is the defacto standard for most sauces anyways.
good quality peanut oil is essential in southern chinese cooking. shunde/chao zhou style sashimi is always paired with peanut oil. same for brushing on rice rolls to give it that shine.
I wish I watched this a year ago. I got into eastern cooking a while back. If I see an product I have to buy, I would Google it, take a picture, and wander up and down the aisles of my local market looking for the product.
Thank you for this. I always feel intimidated and uncertain when shopping in Asian markets. There are so many products and so many are not labeled in English, I am just buying blind, and am often disappointed when I get them home and try them. This video is incredibly helpful.
Very useful. Often I am stuck staring at an aisle of stuff with no translations. Pictures and bottle shape helps immensely. I have been cooking Chinese style dishes for years, but only recently figured out Xaio Shing wine. Time to add another ingredient.
Great info! I would have liked to see a shopping cart or counter top array of your basic choice items to get an idea of bulk, storage space needed, etc. thanks Lucas. I used to live around the corner from that market!
I have been cooking a ton of Chinese recipes lately and I'm happy to say that I have been using most of the brands/products that Lucas recommends. Yay me!
If I'm not using regular sugar, I prefer palm sugar discs. Fermented black beans and hoisin are mandatory (to me.) Took me a bit to really stock my Chinese pantry but so worth it. I can make anything and now it's just maintenance. RECIPE REQUEST: Sweet and Sour using osmanthus blossoms.
This video is a great idea. Here in australia we had a TV program called 'Food Safari' by Maeve O'Mara & in the show she tried to demystify a lot of ethnic foods & condiments. In one episode a man did just what you are doing & went through a few of the essentials for an asian pantry. It is very confusing if you aren't used to the products. Better than say 30 years ago when it was near impossible, outside large cities, to find most of these foods. A lot of asian friends even has relatives sending sauces & dried goods in the mail. I loved it as I was from the bush & the most exotic dish I'd ever seen up until then was spaghetti bolognese.
![[UNCUT] The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์ EP.15 (1/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TLBjiHvkKtE/mqdefault.jpg)
I see Lucas, I click
Yeah, smells great
Me too!
And click like
lucas is love, lucas is life🩵🫧
It's so simple
Lucas could literally talk about paint drying and I'd still watch.
Lucas is the Alton Brown of chinese cooking. Telling the history and chemistry in making tasty recipes 😋
I was thinking more Julia Child
@marcusyoung5440 nah no CIA background and uses less butter 😀
But he’s cute like Julia. Alton not so much.
alton is like worst of the worst of american cuisine. I dont need alton to teach me how to cook for waffle house and that's basically his only trick
Check out Chinese Cooking Demystified. Not as camera happy, but they make up by being very informative.
Lucas Sin has established himself as the Julia Child for Chinese cuisine. Fuchsia Dunlop, Kenji, Martin Yan, etc have done a great job laying the groundwork to make Chinese cooking approachable but no one is translating the cultural context and mental framework as well as Lucas. Great stuff!
Lucas has a great way of relaying the rationale and adding historical lore when he's cooking. Another good one, Food52!
as a 2nd gen cantonese immigrant; I'm still trying to learn about my culinary heritage; really appreciate having all this pantry information in one video (even though I know Lucas could probably make a semester long college course about it). Thank you! Saving this for reference!!
im zero gen immigrant Cantonese and still enthused by his knowledge of cooking
I'd definitely attend that college course!
I'm Chinese and I've learned new things my mama didn't teach me 😂. Thank you Lucas.
As an ABC myself, can't help but notice that Lucas has strength in both cultures, something I've aspired to since I was young. My Chinese side is there, but his is undoubtedly stronger.
im p sure he grew up in HK. i'm getting wealthy international school kid vibes. it's possible he has ABC parents bc that would explain his american accent and decision to spend establish himself in the US despite HK being more british. i have a hunch he's CBA lol - american parents who got jobs in HK.
I gotta say these markets can be so overwhelming for me yet Lucas makes it feel so approachable. Love him!
Very cool! Would be neat to have a whole series of these, like have a Japanese chef walk you through a Japanese-American grocery store, have an Indian chef walk you through an Indian-American grocery store...etc
check out the old Australian show Food Safari. each episode has a segment where someone from that culture walks you through a grocery store.
Lucas is so amazing at explaining such nuance details about Asian food.
I have been so burnt out by cooking/educational videos for the past couple of years and Lucas has single handledly reignited my passion for cooking again. Love to learn and also be entertained at the same time. Thank you!
I hope Lucas guiding everyone around Asian Grocery stores becomes a regular series please and thank you.
Fantastic. Lucas needs his own show with a budget.
Lucas just explains food with so much approachability. As a basic home cook who often orders chinese food, he makes me want to organize my pantry and learn more about prepping chinese food at home
Such a legend. Lucas will go down as one of the best to ever do it. I am such a huge fan!!!
I love video's like this. Everyone has his/her own take on ingredients and it's always nice to find out what the differences are and there's always new stuff that others haven't covered. Hoping for a 'next level' videos soon.
fn killin it bruh! Best explanation on Chinese sauces I've EVER seen! Thank you, good sir!
Any video Lucas makes is amazing! So informative and makes me want to cook Chinese and I will continue! His tomato egg recipe on this channel is a weekly go-to for us! Please keep them coming!
Never go wrong with Lucas videos. Very informative ❤️. Thank you for great guidance
If there are foods that scare you -you should try them at least once. That is a lesson in food that Lucas has taught me well. ❤
I love shopping at Asian markets and this guide was so helpful. I can't thank Lucas enough for making this video - it was really informative!
I think one of the most unique Chinese sugar is maltose syrup. It's used in making long shou tong/dragon beard candy (龍鬚糖), but most importantly, it's the key sugar used in making lotus seed paste. Most English recipes call for brown or black sugar, but real lotus seed paste is made with maltose. Maltose is a unique sugar because it has extremely long-chain polysaccharides that can be pulled like noodles in dragon beard candy, or coiled and blended into lotus paste.
Love Lucas' explanations and knowledge!
Love this and anything to do with Lucas Sin's in depth technical knowledge ! I would love to see a similar video about other isles in a similar Chinese market - like working through all the varieties of produce or all the spices for example. Thanks for putting it together food52
i could listen to Lucas talk all day
Love Lucas, so knowledgeable, so approachable in all his explanations! Definitely learned a lot today
Lucas: Our favorite cuz ! LOVE your explanations!!! I see Lucas, I click too
What an incredibly concise and informative video. Thank you Lucas
Asian American born in Brooklyn as someone is half Chinese this was really informative I felt like I was in a lecture in a good way growing up my favorite condiment brand hands down was Lee Kum kee for hosin, oyster sauce etc we always have it stocked
Excellent, excellent Lucas. Thank you for the great explanations.
I consider myself a very knowledgeable chinese/asian grocer. lucas nailed it here in every way.
If only all my college professors were as passionate a teacher as Lucas was!
Thai oyster sauce is my new favorite. More complex than the cheap oyster sauce I used to use. Also, a few drops of sesame oil in refried beans is killer. Just a hint of smokiness.
Live how Lucas explains food!
I really appreciate the detail in a video like this. Thank you for the video!
Thank you, Lucas, for this video! I grew up in Taiwan and am familiar with Taiwanese/Chinese cooking, but even so, this video has been very informative, especially since I live in the US now and have a hard time correlating items sold in American Asian groceries and their Taiwanese counterparts. Please make more of these videos!
So much information! Thank you and very helpful indeed! Lucas, your segments are my favorite. You are a chef, food historian and foodie in one person.
Thank you for this! I’ve been trying to upgrade my Asian cooking and have felt so lost looking for the right ones.
Oh man. I've cooked a lot of Asian inspired food for a while now. So I do have a lot of these ingredients on hand currently. But this is a great synopsis on what is most important to ALWAYS have on hand. I wish that Lucas, or other chefs that are of the other Asian culinary disciplines would put together one of these for their pantries. Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, etc. MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
If the Food Network or whatever ever plans on making a proper Chinese or Asian program, Lucas should be who they hire to host. Not only is he Asian, which already makes him more qualified than the White and other non-East Asian "experts" they normally have, but he breakdowns and delivers each ingredient or component in such a way that is both engaging and easy to understand. This is the type of diversity we need more of. Not that DEI crap.
This is amazing, thank you! I was planning to hit up an Asian grocer soon and stock up, and luckily it feels like most of this is stuff you can keep around for a long time and use as needed, so there isn't overwhelming pressure to ONLY cook Chinese-style for the next few weeks haha.
I like putting a little Sichuan peppercorn oil in spicy ramen (Shin, which I also add sliced scallion, boiled egg, and broiled Chinese sausage to).
Making your own chili crisp is relatively easy but you can find Lao Gan Ma in most super markets these days and I put it on almost everything. My go to snack out of the fridge is a chunk of roast chicken from the market, dipped in a mixture of chili crisp, black vinegar and a little ponzu. And maybe some raw cucumbers and rice if I have the time.
for seasoning soy sauce, i use Japanese Tsuyu soba dipping sauce with infused dry bonito....
there's also a red vinegar that goes really well with wonton noodles
for cooking i mostly use peanut oil for extra fragrance...
and don't forget your corn or potato starch for thickening.....
I would appreciate a video of Lucas talking about the different types of bean pastes and other fermented products used in Chinese cooking
Amazing, great info and as an amateur cook, he gave such good analysis of the complex web of Chinese cooking.
Would love to see the hour long version of this! I always get so overwhelmed by all the different preserved and dried condiments there are at an Asian grocery. Not to mention all the specialty sauces, marinades & pastes (e.g. sambals, miso, preserved lettuce & other veg, etc...)
Lol L.S. is so right when shopping at an Asian store for ingredients. I don't speak or read any Asian language, so crazy as it will sound I just go off the pictures of the ingredients that my Mother used growing up. She has passed (R.I.P. in heaven) but she had an extensive pantry. So far I've been lucky
His content is wonderfully presented
Lucas is an amazing teacher. I could keep listening to him forever. 🔥🔥
Love Lucas, and love these videos.
Low key Chinese cooking GOAT
This guy. 👏 Thank you heaps for another incredible video, Lucas!
This is why many Asian household fridges are filled with sauce more than anything else. Usually most Asian houses have two fridges.. One for sauce and the other for everything else. Lee Kum Kee brand is the defacto standard for most sauces anyways.
I'm stealing all of this! I have such a difficult time trying to explain different types of sauce to people. Thank you Lucas!!
Thank you so much. This was genuinely educational and accessible to me.
Wonderfully informative, thank you Lucas!❤
Lukas Sin continues to blow me away!
good quality peanut oil is essential in southern chinese cooking. shunde/chao zhou style sashimi is always paired with peanut oil. same for brushing on rice rolls to give it that shine.
thanks Lucus, we are so thrilled that you have Pat Chun sweetened vinegar in your heart
my man spitting facts here... good to finally know why they add salt into cooking wine. Tempted to try the two vinegars I love sour stuff.
I am from HK living in the U.S. and I needed this video to know my sauces and ingredients :)
This was so useful thanks! I love using Chinese rock sugar for making jam. It tastes so much better! ❤
awesome video ... better to watch this first than wandering around a chinese supermarket looking lost and confused like auntie ...
Nice job Lucas. Looking forward to more recipes.
Lucas is fire! everything he does is on point!
love this so much! so clear and comprehensive
I wish I watched this a year ago. I got into eastern cooking a while back. If I see an product I have to buy, I would Google it, take a picture, and wander up and down the aisles of my local market looking for the product.
Lucas is the best, intelligent interesting and informative
love the explaination!
Most informative and interesting video. Thank you!
Really appreciate your effort for doing this video! It really helps on my Chinese cooking
Thank you for this. I always feel intimidated and uncertain when shopping in Asian markets. There are so many products and so many are not labeled in English, I am just buying blind, and am often disappointed when I get them home and try them. This video is incredibly helpful.
This is fantastic. Thanks for doing this!
Very useful. Often I am stuck staring at an aisle of stuff with no translations. Pictures and bottle shape helps immensely. I have been cooking Chinese style dishes for years, but only recently figured out Xaio Shing wine. Time to add another ingredient.
This video is super helpful. Thank you! (hello from San Francisco)
Im so excited to try cooking Chinese food at home. this vid is so helpful so I can try make my favorite sides & proteins correctly & flavourful
I love this video. I learn a lot.
Great info! I would have liked to see a shopping cart or counter top array of your basic choice items to get an idea of bulk, storage space needed, etc. thanks Lucas. I used to live around the corner from that market!
Thank you Lucas for that educational video!!!
I love how you explain things ❤
I have been cooking a ton of Chinese recipes lately and I'm happy to say that I have been using most of the brands/products that Lucas recommends. Yay me!
This was great, thank you. I was hoping you'd talk about maltose!
If I'm not using regular sugar, I prefer palm sugar discs. Fermented black beans and hoisin are mandatory (to me.) Took me a bit to really stock my Chinese pantry but so worth it. I can make anything and now it's just maintenance. RECIPE REQUEST: Sweet and Sour using osmanthus blossoms.
Excellent! Thank you so much!
Loved this!!!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it
very helpful and informative, thank you very much! now i feel confident to buy cooking wine - that always intimidated me. :)
very informative and got to learn a lot
Fabulous, really helpful!
Great explanation!
oyster sauce and sesame oil are my fav condiments!! it really enhances the flavor, sucha game changer
Nice - I used to shop there every week, the selection of sauces (esp Lee Kum Kee) was a favorite
Thank you! That was very enlightening!
Give this guy his own Netflix special and call it "SIn's City." NOW
Lucas is my favorite
Love Lucas videos!!
This video is a great idea. Here in australia we had a TV program called 'Food Safari' by Maeve O'Mara & in the show she tried to demystify a lot of ethnic foods & condiments. In one episode a man did just what you are doing & went through a few of the essentials for an asian pantry. It is very confusing if you aren't used to the products. Better than say 30 years ago when it was near impossible, outside large cities, to find most of these foods. A lot of asian friends even has relatives sending sauces & dried goods in the mail. I loved it as I was from the bush & the most exotic dish I'd ever seen up until then was spaghetti bolognese.
Please do the noodle and grain aisles next! There is so much I feel like I'm missing out on in my local Asian grocery store