A long relationship survives only if it is accompanied by a series of discoveries about each other. Otherwise, it goes down the way of ennui and dispassion. My favourite cuisine, Oriental, always reveals something new to me when I am least expecting it. This has kept my passion for it as fresh as the first, nervous day when I stood behind a stove trying to make the perfect Oriental stock for an exacting master chef. 

We grew up on Oriental fare, gorging on it on every holiday in Calcutta, heading to Tangra or Park Street straight from college or after a movie. We never gave much thought to its exotic ingredients. Of course, it had to have rice, noodles, seafood, vegetables and meat in some hot and sweet and tangy sauce. Oriental food was always savoury and we, its eager fans, always hungry. 

Much later, as I began to learn about the cuisine’s many subtle characters, I had to acknowledge how it had nothing in common with what I had recognised as Oriental food so far. The authentic cuisine felt so alien that it could have shaken my insider’s confidence and remained forbidden territory for the rest of my life. 

A lot of people who love Oriental cuisine find that enjoying the food and understanding it are two entirely different matters. Most give up exploring the dishes beyond reading the menu. As if the main ingredients are not exotic enough, the mind-boggling variety of condiments, marinades, dipping sauces and seasonings that go into each dish keep the faint-hearted away from the authentic cuisine. 

Which is rather sad. Anyone who has experienced the original Sichuanese or Hunanese food from inside will vouch for the creativity, simplicity and innovativeness of Southeast Asian and Chinese chefs through the centuries. 

SOY SO GOOD

Oriental food is not about delicacies alone. It is about how cultivators, fishermen, food vendors and home cooks developed unique ways to use valuable food without any waste, how to store them through the long droughts or maximise the use of every item.  

Semi-prepared or processed ingredients are very common in this cuisine, reducing the real cooking time to just a few minutes. Such ingredients can be stored for a long time. They can be used in a variety of ways, adding richness to your menu with just a few sauces and seasonings. Even the beginner knows about the importance of soy sauce in Chinese cuisine but may not know that the dark soy sauce is fermented and aged longer but the mild, light soy sauce is the one more commonly to be used. And the rice vinegar can be white, black or red. Each can impart a subtle unique flavour and sweetness to your dish. All rice vinegars are milder than malt vinegars. 

As you progress to Shaoxing wine, a rice wine that makes for excellent marinade for fish, you may become bolder and try adding some fermented ingredients like yellow bean sauce to your kitchen shelf. Fermented yellow beans, with or without the pureed whole beans, add an aromatic texture. It is a common base for many dishes. Fermented black beans are made of soybeans matured in salt and spices. You will find it useful in making many popular seasonings. 

The five-spice powder is a staple that reappears in many preparations. Star anise, Sichuanese peppercorn, fennel, cloves and cinnamon combine all the five major tastes — hot, sweet, savoury, sour and bitter. 

The real innovation of Chinese cuisine probably lies in their ready-to-use sauces like Hoisin sauce, which is made of soybeans, vinegar, sugar and spices or the oyster sauce, in which oysters are cooked in soy sauce. It is not at all fishy, as is often feared, and is rich in flavour.

The Oriental cuisine is an extended family, which includes delicacies from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Korea. Most interestingly, each region uses its signature sauces to make the finest delicacies. If you are in Malaysia, you would want to try out Malaysian fish curry in Char Siu sauce (sauce prepared from barbecued pork and Cantonese roasted meat) or a Kam Heong Chicken in Kam Heong sauce (also known as ‘golden fragranced sauce’ that has a blend of dried shrimps, curry powder, shallots or garlic) or the most inevitable Kung Pao sauce, which is a balance between fermented chilli flakes and chilli bean sauce, complemented with sweet and tangy flavours extracted from apple juice concentrate and vinegar. 

Travelling further Southeast, the cooking techniques begin to be spicy. One would be mesmerised with the taste of Sambal Soto, a chilli sauce which is served as a side dish for noodle soups, or a Babi Panggang, which is another spicy sauce used for stirred dry fish. In the same vein, Nam Pla (fish sauce) can put off many with its name but actually has no fish in it. It is a hot, sour and salty base for many fish preparations. As you progress towards Thailand, most dishes use a very sweet chilli kind of sauce, like Sriracha or Tom Yam, usually used for noodle soups. The other sought-after sauces include the kaffir lime sauce (also known as Thai chilli lime sauce) and baby aubergine chilli sauce.

Oriental cuisine is inspired from Japanese and Korean cooking styles too. In fact, Japanese cuisine is considered to be one of the world’s most delicious. Made from the liquid of fermented soybeans, Sake Mirin soy sauce makes sushi taste like a blessing. Due to its extremely salty taste, it can boost the flavour of any meat, plus makes a great addition to other types of dressings. 

PONZU TO WASABI

Apart from soya, Ponzu is another taste-enhancing sauce. It’s thin and citrus-y and blends great with a variety of foods like salad or meat. Grated daikon (or Asian) radish is mixed with Ponzu as a healthy dip. By itself, this sauce can liven up a vegetable or grilled meat dish. It’s great when tasted with Japanese Yuzu fruit juice. 

Meat or steamed vegetables is a favourite dish in Japan and the Miso sauce definitely adds to its flavour due to its most appetising taste. Spread this on your next meat dish or dip your favourite vegetables in and you will finish your meal positively satisfied. The finale of the lot is the Wasabi sauce, which is not only healthy as it contains Vitamin C but is also a great condiment for sushi.

Some other sauces that definitely deserve a mention are those from Korea, like the Gochujang sauce which adds to the flavour of soups and even barbecued or grilled tofu. At the traditional end of Korea lies kimchi (pronounced as ‘gimchi’), which is used as a side dish and includes napa cabbage and Korean radishes. 

Some staple ingredients that get the Oriental kitchen going include bamboo shoots, found in two varieties — the winter and the spring — silken tofu and the more solid tofu which gives more texture, flavour and nutrition to a bowl of hot soup. Then there is Chinese black tea that is used to season some dishes, pak choi or Chinese cabbage with tender leaves and crisp stalks that are delicately cooked, dried mushrooms which are more smoky and deep in flavour than fresh mushrooms and absorb sauces better, glutinous rice and fresh, un-aged jasmine rice which is the Chinese equivalent to our Basmati but is best steamed rather than boiled. 

These essentials are enough to get any beginner’s Oriental cooking underway. However, each of these ingredients play different roles in the cuisine that takes years to unravel. Sometimes a sauce appears as the main focus of a dish, at other times it is a marinade leaving just a hint of its flavour in the final preparation. Somewhere else, it appears as a dipping sauce. 

Every ingredient, raw or semi-prepared, is a study in resourcefulness, where cooks have extracted maximum taste and nutrition from humble produce. Discovering the unique and surprising roles that these ingredients play took me many years, but that is the best part of authentic Oriental cooking. It is a long revelation that ensures a longer and passionate relationship.

Anjan Chatterjee is the chief of Speciality Restaurants, which owns Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta, Cafe Mezzuna, Sigree Global Grill, Hoppipola, Asia Kitchen