Common Seasoning Ingredients in Chinese Cooking
| Light Soy Sauce | Lighter in colour than dark soy sauce but more salty . Used in marinade and sauce. |
| Dark Soy Sauce | Darker in colour than light soy sauce, but with a slighter sweet flavour. Used in stews or sauce that calls for a nice rich darker colour. |
| White Granulated Sugar | White Granulated Sugar
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| Salt | Table salt |
| White Ground Pepper | White Ground Pepper
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| Cornstarch | Used in marinade and sauce. It is used as a thickening agent in sauce. Its thickening power is different from that of wheat flour. Do not substitute wheat flour for cornstarch. |
| Sesame Oil | 100% concentrated or blended with soybean oil. Use less for concentrated one. |
| Chicken Broth Mix | Flavour enhancer. Used to replace MSG which is commonly used in Chinese cooking. Still contains a small amount of MSG. |
| Vegetable Stock Mix | Flavour enhancer made with vegetables and spices, also contained some MSG . Used in vegetarian dishes and as an alternative to chicken broth mix or pure MSG. |
| Oyster Sauce | Made from oyster extract and thickened with cornstarch. |
| Chinese Cooking Wine | Only available in Chinese grocery stores. Can be replaced with sherry cooking wine (available in almost any supermarket) or sweet sherry (Liquor Mart) |
| Cooking Oil | Use corn or canola oil for stir-frying and corn oil for deep frying. |