All Ingredients

The best Chinese black vinegars are produced in the province of Chinkiang (or Chekiang or Zhejiang--there are many spellings). Black vinegar is more assertive than white rice vinegar, and it's often used in stir-fries, shark's fin soup, and as a dipping sauce. Gold Plum is a well-regarded brand.

Like rapini, Chinese broccoli has small stems and green heads (which actually are flowers) and lots of leaves. But Chinese broccoli is leafier and less bitter than rapini. It's a great vegetable to stir-fry, but you can also steam or boil it, as you would broccoli.

This has a stronger flavor than ordinary celery, and it's often used in stir-fries and soups. Look for it in Asian markets.

Unlike regular chives, these have flat leaves and a distinct garlicky flavor.

When fresh, these fruits are crisp like apples and have a mild, sweet flavor. In the United States, they're most often available dried. Chinese are different than middle eastern palm dates.

These are usually dried, but you can sometimes find fresh dates in late summer and fall. When you get them home, let them ripen on the counter for awhile until they become soft and sweet. Chinese are different than middle eastern palm dates.

These wheat noodles are made with eggs, which adds flavor, color, and body. They're often used to make chow mein (in which the cooked noodles are formed into a pancake and fried on both sides) and lo mein (in which the noodles are stir-fried along with the other ingredients). Chow mein noodles are usually cut a bit thinner than lo mein noodles, but the two can be used interchangeably. Chinese egg noodles are available both fresh and dried; and some are flavored with shrimp. Cook fresh noodles in boiling water for about 3 minutes, dried for about 5 minutes. Don't confuse these with fried chow mein noodles, which are used in Americanized Chinese dishes, particularly Chinese chicken salad. Some brands are labeled "imitation noodles"; these aren't made with eggs, but have yellow food coloring added.

Compared to the familiar American eggplant, Chinese eggplants have thinner skins, a more delicate flavor, and not as many of the seeds that tend to make eggplants bitter.

Don't confuse this with panch phoron, a Bengali spice mix that's sometimes called "five spice." For a more detailed recipe, visit the Five Spice Powder posting on RecipeSource.com.

This category includes the well-regarded Yunnan ham = Xuanwei ham. Chinese hams are dry-cured and resemble American country hams.

Chinese mustard is ground mustard seeds and water. It can be very spicy.

The Chinese like their noodles long and slippery, the better to slurp down noisily. They're especially fond of wheat noodles, which they use in soups, and wheat and egg noodles, which they use in stir-fries and chow mein, their famous fried noodle dish. Rice noodles and bean threads are also popular.

includes preserved Sichuan mustard greens, preserved Sichuan kohlrabi, snow pickle = red-in-snow, and salted cabbage = winter pickle.

This is similar to spinach, only it's prettier, tastier, and more nutritious. Look for it in Asian markets.

This includes yellow rock sugar = yellow lump sugar (pictured) or clear rock sugar.

These delicate noodles are mostly used in soups. They're available fresh, dried, or frozen, and they come in various sizes, some as thin as vermicelli, others as thick and wide as fettuccine. Before using, the Chinese boil the noodles (about 3-4 minutes for fresh, 5-10 for dried) and then rinse them in cold water.

This fits on top of a deep container and mashes food that is pressed through it.

This spicy pork sausage is used in jambalaya and other Creole and Cajun dishes. It's available either in links or patties, but it's hard to find outside of Louisiana.

These are darker, milder versions of the chipotle chile.

These dried and smoked jalapeño peppers lend a wonderful, complex flavor to sauces. They're usually rehydrated and canned in adobo sauce, but you can also buy them dried in cellophane bags. They are medium hot.

These are thin slices of salty dried beef that are usually sold in jars. During World War II, chipped beef was commonly served in a cream sauce on toast. Called "shit on a shingle," it was a dish that managed to taste awful despite its high levels of fat and sodium. Now that we enjoy a higher standard of living, chipped beef has thankfully fallen into relative obscurity.

These are vegetables or grain products that have been cut into thin slices, deep-fried or baked until crisp, and then salted. They're often served with creamy dips. The British use the word "chips" for what Americans call French fries.

These pasta rods resemble spaghetti, only their cross-sections are square instead of round. They're named after the guitar strings that were traditionally used to cut the pasta.

These slender, hollow shoots have a mild onion flavor. Many cooks use scissors to cut fresh chives, sprinkling them like confetti on potatoes, eggs, and salads. Always use fresh chives--they lose much of their flavor when they're frozen or freeze-dried.

Chocolate is made from tropical cacao beans, which are transformed by machines and an inveterate spelling error into a bitter, brown paste of cocoa butter and cocoa solids. When this unsweetened chocolate is combined with sugar, vanilla, and other ingredients, the result, of course, is heavenly. Chocolate's notoriously hard to work with. If you don't store it properly (preferably at 65° or so), the cocoa butter can separate slightly from the solids, causing the chocolate to "bloom." This leaves a telltale gray residue on the surface and impairs the taste and texture slightly. Chocolate will scorch if you melt it at too high a temperature, or "seize" and become thick and grainy if you add even a drop of cold liquid to it as it's melting. You can prevent it from seizing by adding hot liquids (like cream) to chopped chocolate in order to melt it, or by making sure that anything you're dipping into the melted chocolate (like a strawberry or whisk) is perfectly dry. If your chocolate has seized, you can still use it in any recipe that calls for chocolate to be blended with a liquid. Just add the liquid to the chocolate and melt it again. If you plan to melt chocolate, it's best to buy it in bars. Chips contain less cocoa butter so that they can better hold their shape in cookies, but this makes them harder to melt and less tasty. It's easiest to melt chocolate in a microwave oven. Just break the chocolate into small pieces, heat it for 30 seconds at 50% power, stir, then repeat a few times. Take it out of the microwave when the chocolate is almost completely melted, then continue stirring until the melting is complete. If you don't have a microwave, use a double boiler.

These are designed to go into chocolate chip cookies, muffins, and trail mixes. Chocolate chips often have less cocoa butter than chocolate bars, which helps them retain their shape better when they're baked in the oven. Avoid chips that contain vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter--they have a waxy flavor.

This is a pretty and easily-made garnish for desserts. The curls are fragile, so it's best to move them around with a toothpick.

There are many well-regarded brands of chocolate liqueur, including Godiva, Truffles, Mozart, and Hagen Daz. Some liqueurs combine chocolate with other flavors, like Cheri Suisse, Vandermint, and Tiramisu.

These are crisp chocolate cookies that are often crushed and used to make pie crusts.

This is a mixture of chocolate and hazelnut paste that Europeans use like peanut butter. Nutella is a popular brand.

These are too tart for most people to eat out of hand, but they make delicious preserves.

These are substitutes for tongs.

This is fresh pork mixed with lots of spices. Don't confuse Mexican chorizo, which needs to be cooked, with Spanish chorizo, which is dry-cured. To make your own: See the Homemade Chorizo recipe posted on RecipeSource.com.

Don't confuse Mexican chorizo, which is moist and needs to be cooked, with the Spanish version, which is dry-cured and ready-to-eat. Spanish chorizo is made from pork, and it's very hot and spicy.

This is a heavily seasoned Portuguese pork sausage. Look for it in Portuguese markets.