Spicy Chinese Pantry Collection

Five Tastes, Infinite Flavors This Spicy Chinese Pantry Collection is a cross between our Chinese Essentials Collection and our Complete Sichuan Collection: It's an all-purpose Chinese pantry that leans spicy. The collection was inspired by the core seasonings Fuchsia Dunlop recommends to cook most dishes from her 2026 book Five Tastes. The 10 essential products allow you to create the five classic tastes of Chinese food—sour, bitter, sweet, pungent or spicy, and salty, as well as the two modern taste additions, umami and numbing—along with an array of complex flavors made from combining them in infinite ways. The collection includes Zhongba 360 light soy sauce (naturally brewed 1 year), 16.9 oz Zhongba dark soy sauce (naturally brewed 180 days), 16.9 oz Tongchuan 3-year fermented soybeans (douchi), 9.5 oz Ninghuafu Shanxi mature vinegar, 9-year, 16.9 oz Red-oil Pixian doubanjiang (chili bean paste), 21.2 oz Facing heaven zi dan tou chilies, 4 oz/ 4 1/2 cups Chengdu Crispy Chili Oil, 8.3 oz Premium Sichuan Tribute pepper, 2 oz/ 1 cup Shaoxing Huadiao rice wine for cooking, 20.4 oz Cuizi small-mill roasted sesame oil, 7.4 oz The book asks you to think about a Chinese pantry by identifying a product's taste and the flavor profiles you can create with it. For example, sweet-and-sour; sour-and-hot; sweet-and-spicy with garlic; spicy-and-savory; numbing-and-spicy; "fish-fragrant," etc. Categorized by taste, the Salty and Umami category includes the most important Chinese ingredient, soy sauce, and related ingredient fermented soybeans. This collection includes a light soy sauce naturally brewed for one year and a dark soy sauce from Sichuan heritage brand Zhongba. The preserved black beans, or douchi, are fermented for three years by Sichuan heritage brand Tongchuan; plump and moist, they do not need rinsing or prepping before use. The Sour category includes Chinese black vinegar, in this case one of China's Four Famous Vinegars, a rich, full-bodied Shanxi mature vinegar, age 9 years. The Spicy and Pungent category is the largest in the collection, as many recipes in the book (and on our site!) are Sichuan-inspired, where complex flavors often include a spicy element. The essential foundation of Sichuan cooking is Pixian doubanjiang, or chili bean paste, which is a ferment of fava beans and chilies. This collection includes the popular Juan Cheng brand red-oil doubanjiang, a version with added roasted rapeseed oil that is ready-to-go for stir-fries. Chili heat is also used in the form of dried chilies and chili oil. Zi dan tou chilies are the workhorse of Sichuan food, with intense fragrance and coloring ability and moderate heat. Our own Mala Market Chengdu Crispy Chili Oil is made for us in small batches in Sichuan and is the ideal match for Sichuan food and cooking, with enough free oil to dress noodles and cold dishes. In the newer taste category of Ma, or numbing, is Sichuan's defining spice, Sichuan pepper, which is used extensively throughout western China cuisines. This collection includes the legendary and rare variety called Tribute Pepper, as it was the favorite of the emperors. It is a robust red peppercorn with exquisite fragrance and numbing power. Along with the core tastes, there are a few other vital ingredients to a Chinese pantry. Chief among those are cooking wine and sesame oil. The appealing taste and fragrance of Shaoxing rice wine make it the favorite for marinades and meat/fish dishes. And roasted sesame oil is often the crowning touch of a stir-fry and a key ingredient in cold sauces for its nutty, toasty aroma. All products in this collection are full size and all (except the dark soy sauce) have no additives or preservatives. This collection is sold at a 10% discount off individual product prices. Purchase Five Tastes separately as your guide to the infinite number of flavors you can make with this collection. Note that collections are not packed separately from other items in the same order.