INGREDIENTS

Cooking Asian at home is something done all over the United States. From chow mein to egg rolls to Peking duck, Chinese-style ingredients are fairly common in grocery stores. Otherwise, most metropolitan areas will have Asian specialty grocery stores, or there’s always the internet. Oh, wait, that’s us. Anyway, here’s the basics you need.

From the freezing mountains and desert in Mongolia to the steamy, sticky jungles of Vietnam to the beautiful beaches of Thailand, Asian food has an incredible range of flavors and styles. Asian food has become familiar in the Western world, with Asian restaurants on virtually every corner. But that does not mean it has become “assimilated” to American tastes. More often than not, those restaurants are operated by people from the culinary region – so you know you’re eating the real deal. Or at least as close as you can get when you’re 9,000 miles away.