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What dried tangerine peel actually tastes like, and where to find it. Everything you need to shop a Chinese pantry with confidence.
Ingredient Guides
Chenpi is one of the only ingredients in a Chinese kitchen that gets more valuable with time — decades, sometimes. What it is, why old peel is prized, and how to buy and use it in an American kitchen.
Jack Chen · Nov 1, 2026 · 4 min read
Ingredient Guides
Jiang cong you is not a recipe so much as a kitchen institution — poured over steamed fish, tossed with noodles, spooned over plain rice. The version I make weekly, and the mistakes I made for years.
Jack Chen · Oct 31, 2026 · 3 min read
Ingredient Guides
It looks like a barrel of Swiss cheese and eats like a water chestnut with ambition. How to buy lotus root in an American grocery, clean it properly, and cook the two classic ways — crisp and soft.
Jack Chen · Oct 28, 2026 · 4 min read
Ingredient Guides
Skip the novelty of a 40-ingredient haul. This is the honest list — twelve ingredients that cover 90 percent of what a Cantonese home kitchen actually reaches for, with what they do and where to find them.
Jack Chen · Oct 27, 2026 · 4 min read