Namikura Kyoto-Style White Miso
Savory, sweet and flavor-dense, white miso is an absolutely essential pantry item. Winey-sweet, buttery and deeply rich, this organic version from Japanese family producer Namikura Miso Co. is more complex and less salty than other brands, which means it can be used more freely with soy sauce without dishes tasting overly seasoned.
Namikura Red Miso
Red Miso is stronger, saltier and more assertively flavored than yellow or white miso due to its six-month aging process and has a higher proportion of soybeans for a richer taste. This particularly interesting version has sweet flavors reminiscent of sherry and milk chocolate that are perfect for pairing with red meat and other robust dishes.
BLiS Gourmet Barrel Aged Fish Sauce
This bourbon barrel-aged fish sauce is mellowed by seven months of sitting in oak, so the earthy, meaty funk that one expects from any fermented fish product is beautifully balanced by a complementary sweetness. BLiS's product is also rounded out with soft notes imparted by the seven-month aging process: warming spices, vanilla, and fruit woods, as well as a subtle smoky depth.
Nitto Jozo White Tamari
Note that while tamari is often used as a term for gluten-free soy sauce, Nitto Jozo’s White Tamari is actually all wheat-based. (In Japan, tamari simply refers to a liquid that is pressed out of another substance—in this case, wheat.) This sauce is malty-sweet and slightly tangy, a great choice for those who want the umami flavor of soy sauce with less saltiness.
Fly By Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp
This chili sauce is enhanced with preserved black beans, mushroom powder, sesame oil and garlic for a complete flavor profile. The crispy bits of chili, the namesake ingredient of this dish, provide bursts of contrasting texture, making it an ideal tableside topping for stir fries, soups, braises and more.
Doubanjiang - 3 Year Aged Red Bean Paste
Doubanjiang (alternatively spelled toban djan) is an intensely flavored paste made from fermented broad (fava) beans, chilies, salt and seasonings. Fly by JIng is importing the best version we have tasted of this pantry staple: remarkably deep, savory and spicy—far more so than any supermarket version. It’ll be your new secret ingredient and salvation for midnight noodles or last-minute meals.
Blank Slate Kitchen Sichuan Chili Oil
Fragrant Sichuan chili oil is as common in Chinese restaurants as ketchup is in American diners. Blank Slate's Kitchen small-batch rendition pairs the heat of chili with zesty ginger and aromatic shallots and garlic for an especially bright flavor.
Yakami Orchard Yuzu Marmalade
Juicy, flavorful and wonderfully textured Yakami Orchards Yuzu Marmalade is made with fresh, local yuzu from a collective of family farms in Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture. Balanced out with honey and sugar, this yuzu marmalade is bright, tart and warmly sweet with every bite. Just by opening a jar of Yakami Orchards’ product, you’ll be able to smell the bright and subtly floral aroma of yuzu. We love the plentiful chunks of yuzu rind, which are thinly sliced and add texture without making the marmalade clumpy. The yuzu pieces contribute a pop of piney bitterness that is a pleasant counterbalance for the overall sweet spread.
Ohsawa Brown Rice Vinegar
The nutty, rounded flavor of this vinegar comes from the whole-grain brown rice that is used to make it. Following the Ohsawa Company’s principles of whole, natural foods—founder George Ohsawa revived the modern macrobiotic food movement in the 1960s—the Uchibori family producer that makes this vinegar adheres to a thousand-year-old tradition of aging the vinegar outdoors in earthenware crocks for over 12 months. Highlight the slight nuttiness of Ohsawa Brown Rice Vinegar in quick pickles, like our Japanese-Style Salt-Pickled Radish and Red Onion, or pair it with the sesame and peanut flavors in our Smashed Cucumber Salad. Try a splash on your avocado toast, or if you like rice bowls, season the rice with a splash of vinegar and a pinch of sugar; top with blanched spinach, smoked salmon or trout, and a few toasted sesame seeds or shichimi togarashi, the Japanese chili pepper blend.
Kamado-San Double-Lid Donabe Rice Cooker
If you eat as much rice as we do, it's worthwhile owning a proper rice cooker. There’s convenience to an electric cooker, but we much prefer the remarkably moist, fluffy grains of rice produced by clay donabe-style rice cookers. The unique design of these age-old pots features two lids—the inset lid allows some moisture to escape to control the rate at which the rice cooks and lightly pressurizes the pot. This particularly thick-bottomed, durable pot is made from a uniquely porous clay, which heats evenly and maintains a steady heat for very uniform cooking. Beyond rice, the pot can also be used for small batches of soups and stews, like a quick miso soup. We love the thick rustic glaze and the way the pot patinas with use. It looks good enough to come right to the table
Sukoyaka Brown Genmai Rice
If you are tired of tasteless white rice, let me introduce you to Genmai Rice. When I first tasted genmai two years ago, my first thought was that this rice was a miracle—it cooks quickly, just like white rice, but has the rich, earthy flavor and satisfying chewiness of great brown rice. Once you taste Sukoyaka Genmai, you will never go back. How is this possible? It is an American-grown short-grain brown rice that has had a portion of the outer bran layer is scrubbed away, allowing the grains to hydrate faster while retaining most of their nutritional properties. The nutty, earthy-tasting grains are distinct and just a touch sticky, making the rice perfect for accompanying stir-fries, curries, soups and stews, although I make it two or three times a week as a starter, for any sort of topping from steamed vegetables to quickly grilled chicken or steak. Matt, Card, our food editor, also swears by it for fried rice. He keeps a batch frozen in the freezer for a quick batch: Just defrost on the countertop, and it's ready to go for a virtually instant meal. Buy as much as you can afford, since genmai will become your go-to rice after the first bite.
Maruhon Lightly Toasted Sesame Oil
Sesame oil is an essential ingredient in East Asian cuisine for adding aromatic depth, but too often it can be cloying and overpowering. We tasted numerous versions and especially like Maruhon Lightly Toasted Sesame Oil made by Takemoto Oil & Fat Company, the oldest operating oil-extracting company in Japan, which traces its roots to 1725. Maruhon Lightly Toasted Sesame Oil has a far more delicate, nuanced flavor than supermarket versions and tastes distinctly of sesame, unlike the generic nuttiness of some mass-produced versions. This producer uses a chemical-free extraction process, which is not only healthier but also yields a cleaner taste that doesn’t overpower light dishes but stands up to heavier ones. The oil adds just the right amount of nutty richness and is much more aromatic than others we've tried.
Megachef Premium Oyster Flavored Sauce
Megachef Oyster Sauce is made with premium oysters that are harvested off the Gulf of Thailand and smoked over hardwood for a deeper flavor and smoky, grilled aroma. We love its complex yet clean flavor: robust and savory, slightly briny and almost sweet. Although it's prepared by cooking down oysters until their juices caramelize, this sauce does not taste like oysters; rather, it has a molasses-like richness and sweet, savory and umami flavor that's slightly similar to soy sauce. Megachef's version has no added artificial flavors or colors—in contrast, even high-quality brands tend to augment their oyster sauce with ingredients like MSG and caramel coloring, resulting in an artificial taste.
While oyster sauce is mostly used as an ingredient for marinades, stir-fries or flavoring rice or noodle dishes, Megachef's Oyster Sauce is also delicious on its own as a condiment—the sauce's smoother consistency compared to other brands is perfect for dipping or drizzling over dishes.
Hanamaruki Foods Liquid Shio Koji
A traditional condiment made from fermented malted rice, shio koji is known in Japan for packing a punch of umami into everything from marinated meats to savory soups. All shio kojis aren’t created equal, though, for Hanamaruki Foods distills the powerful flavor properties of this essential Japanese ingredient into an easy-to-use liquid form—the only Liquid Shio Koji available on the market—to create the ultimate pantry secret weapon. We love the condiment’s clean, yet bold flavor: salty rounded out with a pronounced sweetness and burst of umami. It’s made by pressing shio koji in its original paste form and filtering until it yields the clear, golden-hued liquid. The product isn’t heat-treated, so its enzymes remain active and effective in rendering meat remarkably moist and juicy, balancing bitterness in veggies like eggplant and adding amino acids for a full-flavored finish to any dish to truly change the way you cook. Use as a marinade for meats and fish, drizzle into salad dressings and sauces to balance savory flavors, or incorporate into baked goods to add a layer of tantalizing complexity.
Jiangsu HengShun 6-Year Zhenjiang Black Vinegar
Ubiquitous Chinese black vinegar is rich, tart and slightly sweet—with a fermented malty taste and woody character that distinguishes it from the light-colored and fruity rice vinegar. This one is crafted by one of the oldest and most well-known producers in the country, who ages the dark liquid for 6 years in traditional urns to achieve its complexity. It’s not too astringent, with a full-bodied character that yields nuanced notes of molasses and something like the brightness of a high-quality bar of dark chocolate, nothing like the other black vinegars we sampled that weren’t given time to age. A pantry staple in Chinese and Taiwanese cuisine, black vinegar contributes a unique flavor to food that (despite what you might read online), can’t be replicated with other dark vinegars like fruity balsamic.
Marukin Koikuchi 50% Reduced Salt Soy Sauce
Most low-sodium soy sauces lack flavor or complexity, but this premium product from Marukin packs a ton of rich umami flavor with half the salt. Established in 1907, Marukin is one of only 1% of Japanese soy sauce producers that maintain traditional production methods from the past century. Their low-sodium sauce is made from the same ingredients as regular soy sauce and is fermented in cedar barrels over a hundred years old; the natural bacteria and yeast that live on the barrels and in the air slowly ferment the soybeans into this naturally sweet, malty and complex sauce. It's the perfect substitute for regular soy sauce for anyone who is looking to reduce their sodium intake without sacrificing flavor. Add this reduced sodium soy sauce to any number of dishes, marinades and sauces.
Sennari Vinegar Brewery Organic Rice Vinegar
Made from only two ingredients—organic rice and water from the mountains of Northern Hiroshima—this organic rice vinegar is a cut above standard supermarket varieties. Slightly sweeter, with a rounder flavor and more umami notes than most rice vinegars, its subtle acidity offers a much more balanced outcome, so no bitterness or harshness comes through. Sennari, a brewery established in Japan in 1927, uses a traditional static fermentation process to produce their vinegars. Koji, a natural fermentation culture, is combined with steamed organic rice and nearby mountain water featuring a soft PH of 7. The combination ferments and develops naturally over the course of six months, resulting in a rice vinegar with a more mild acidity and elevated taste. Conventional mass produced vinegar is usually made in just one week using an automatic fermentation method, the result of which we found lacking in taste.
KariKari Garlic Chili Crisp
We were blown away by this Garlic Chili Crisp from KariKari. We find most chili crisps tend to be mostly oil, but this version is incredibly textured with thin slivers of golden garlic, shallots and peanuts—not surprising since the name KariKari which means crunchy in Japanese. Garlicky and spicy off the bat, followed with a hit of umami and a delightful tingling from Sichuan peppercorn, you can add this crisp to just about any dish for more flavor and complexity. We like it mixed into noodles, rice, veggies and dolloped on top of fried eggs. Or try it spooned over vanilla ice cream for a sweet and spicy treat.