Question
Patrick Britton
Can you suggest a good way to experience new ingredients from restaurants?
Answer
If you have the opportunity, if you wanna take yourself on a, uh, sort of like a as stasio into the grocery world, H Mart is the world's largest Asian chain grocery store. And I live very near one. And you may have heard me say other times that when I was at Rouxbe, I did a lot of my shopping at H Mart because they had every ingredient that I would ever, ever need. They have a wall of miso. And to remember that there are different types of miso, including chickpea miso, which is equally as delicious, and it sort of gives the same umami. I do, however, suggest to read the ingredient list because some miso does contain alcohol. And if you have a sensitivity to alcohol, that might be something you would want to steer clear of. But if you have an H mart near your home, I totally suggest going to visit one. And this reminds me, I just, I got a, a query from a student earlier this week who was looking for an ingredient, uh, that they didn't have at her grocery store. And they were, they weren't sure what they were going to do. And this is what I suggest to many students, if you have a favorite Asian market in, uh, uh, Asian restaurant in your community, go in and ask them if you can have, um, a two tear, two ounces of, um, Shira sriracha, for example, and, uh, maybe order some soup to take out and leave them a tip to show your gratitude. But, you know, going to a restaurant and asking to buy something from the back of the house is not strange, and it's a great way to introduce yourself to a new ingredient without having to go to a store and buy something that you may or may not like. So just a little, little talking tip there.
