After working on Sam Sifton's, Flavorful Cupboard Essentials, piece for the New York Times, I feel that I can now consider myself a connoisseur of asian dishes. I had asian food for lunch and dinner for at least a week straight when I was working on getting these photos together. Between the trips to small asian grorcery stores tracking down ingredients and gathering props and the trip to Flushing Chinatown we had some really good asian dishes (you can't not stop to eat when doing some intense grocery shopping, esp. in Flushing Chinatown!). Also, Sam's recipes are so good that I simply had to eat them all. And then I found myself with a whole pantry full of these ingredients which made me want to experiment in the kitchen, so I did.
The idea behind Sam's piece is that if you keep your pantry stocked with these ingredients there are endless possibilities of recipes that you can throw together. Here he lists the must-haves and gives brand recommendations, followed by three delicious recipes: Orange Beef
