Essential ingredients for Asian cooking

Cooking Asian meals at home is no longer the challenge it was 10 years ago, when buying fish sauce at the supermarket was not an option. Today, grocery stores and ethnic markets offer an impressive selection of ingredients and seasonings from Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam. We asked Charlie Lai, manager of 99 Ranch Market, to assemble essential pantry ingredients to help you cook Asian food at home:

(In the full article, each item has a description and the uses for it)

1) Soy Sauce
2) Fish Sauce
3) Oyster Sauce
4) Chili Sauce
5) Black vinegar and rice-wine vinegar
6) Sesame Oil
7) Rice Wine
8) Star anise and Chinese five-spice