Do You Know Virtual Chinese Supermarket?

Everybody loves a Chinese Takeaway. For decades now “having a Chinese” on a Saturday night has been a regular and much loved treat, and long may that continue. But while many of us might wish to, you simply cannot have a take away every night and so if you want to enjoy Chinese food more often you need to prepare it for yourself.

So you find some recipes and discover that Chinese cuisine can take you far beyond anything you may have seen at your local take-away. China is a vast country comprised of multiple food cultures which feature a mouth watering array of healthy, great tasting dishes that are not just delicious but are also perfectly suited for busy western lifestyles because they can be made quickly. Preparing Chinese food in your own kitchen really is a tremendously attractive prospect. But where do you start?

The first thing that you need to do is find out where to get the finest quality, most  authentic Chinese Groceries you can find, and this is more difficult than you might think. Many recipes suggest “best fit” ingredients to replace items that are difficult to find in mainstream supermarkets, but if you are are going for authenticity there is no substitute for the real thing. So you Google “Chinese Supermarket near me” to see if there is a store locally that carries the same brands ingredients that cooks in China will be using. But the nearest one is miles away, and you just do not have the time to drive all that way.

Do not worry though, because there is an easy solution. You just need to look for Chinese Supermarkets Online. If you shop with a good “virtual” Chinese supermarket like ours you suddenly have access to all the fresh, frozen and packaged ingredients and other authentic Chinese culinary products you could ever need.

You can stock up on store cupboard staples such as rice and noodles – with every variety you can think of just a click away. Another click and there are types of vegetable that you would never see in a mainstream British supermarket, like fresh mooli and mustard greens. Another click and you have a range of Tofu and bean curd than you have ever seen. On and on. Whatever you need from chilled meat and fish to Woks and chopsticks. Whatever you want you will find it there at the click of a mouse and it will be delivered directly to your door – you barely have to leave your kitchen.

Authenticity does not have to be difficult to achieve if you have the right ingredients. There is a strain of opinion that to be “authentic” you need to make every sauce and spice mix from scratch. We think that this is overkill at best. After all few real Chinese home cooks do so. they might do so for the occasional special occasion, and if you really want to go to all that trouble we can supply all the fresh and authentic ingredients you will need. But do you routinely make your own Ketchup or mayonnaise? Of course not. Neither does anybody else. Real Chinese cooks are just like you. They generally buy their sauces and spices from their local supermarket.

Real authenticity is at least in part a matter of finding the same brands that you would be buying if you were actually in China. When you shop with us you can do just that. We have all manner of condiments and sauces that the average supermarket shopper in Beijing would recognise so that you can get the authentically delicious flavour of China without needing to spend all day grinding spices with a pestle and mortar!

When you shop online with us we can help you to achieve authenticity in other ways too. Take rice, for example. It is not that long ago that British cooks had a choice between short or long grain rice, and maybe brown rice if you were in a health food shop. But for truly authentic Chinese dishes that is not nearly enough choice. Rice is integral to most Chinese food cultures and just as Europe enjoys a multitude of different breads, from the sourdough of Ireland to the Ryebread of Germany and the Pitta of Greece, China enjoys many specific varieties of rice. The wrong rice in a dish is not just inauthentic, it can change the balance of flavours and textures.

The same is true of noodles, which are just as integral to the food cultures of China as rice. Using ramen noodles for everything might be an option for students whose only means of cooking is a kettle, but anybody wishing to cook real Chinese food they cannot be relied upon for every dish. Perhaps even more than rice noodles have a profound effect on the flavour and texture of the finished dish, so you have to be sure you are using the right variety.

Fortunately once you have discovered the advantages of our virtual Chinese supermarket you never have to worry about having the right kind of rice or noodles in the cupboard. We have them all – and because they are generally pretty inexpensive and have long shelf lives you can easily keep every type you could ever need in your pantry. When everything is to hand like that it is easy to be spontaneous, and if you do realise you are running low our express delivery services mean that you will never run out of anything for long.

And of course there is more than food in our virtual Chinese Supermarket, you can find a whole range of drinks on our virtual shelves too. Chinese soft drinks, beers and wines are all part of the Chinese culinary experience. Just as “rice is not just rice” and “noodles are not just noodles” it is too simplistic to say “beer is just beer” and so on. Yes, British lagers can make a fine accompaniment to many Chinese dishes, but Chinese beers were brewed with Chinese food culture in mind.

The same, of course, can be said for every other kind of drink, whether it is alcoholic or not. You might particularly enjoy exploring our range of teas – China is famously the home of high quality tea and we can take you far beyond the limits of “English Breakfast” and help you to discover the delights of Mulberry or Gunpowder tea, as well as various fruit and medicinal teas.

And of course once you have decided on the ingredients need to create your authentic Chinese meals you might want to try preparing them in an authentically traditional way, so here in our virtual Chinese supermarket we also have all manner of Chinese tableware, cookware and cutlery. We promised you have never truly had a Chinese cooking experience until you have wielded a traditional Chinese cleaver, and while you can produce perfectly good stir-fry in a European style frying pan a traditional wok is much more fun. You also absolutely need to get a proper Chinese steamer, because there really is no substitute.

So waste no more time wondering “is there a Chinese Supermarket Near Me?”. Let your mouse do the walking and explore the digital world of the virtual Chinese supermarket and get everything you need without even leaving the kitchen!