What Peter Som Can’t Cook Without

Furikake technically means “sprinkle” in Japanese, and traditionally it’s used to sprinkle over rice. But I keep some on the side of my stove and essentially put it on everything. It has seaweed, sesame seeds, salt, sugar, and sometimes dried egg yolks. I always put it on roasted vegetables. Recently I put it on grilled peaches, along with lemon zest, to make them more savory. It looks really pretty, too, so even when you’re making a random fridge clean-out meal on a Tuesday, you just sprinkle some furikake on, and you’re like,Oh, this looks nice.

First of all, Burlap & Barrel is an amazing company. They work directly with their farmers. I put honey on my toast with peanut butter every morning — it’s one of my pre-gym things. But I had never had smoked honey before this one. It’s less sweet than regular honey. It takes the sweetness down a notch and increases the caramelized savoriness of things, almost like salted caramel. There’s such a nuance to it. A savoriness. It’s lovely.

I like crunchy peanut butter. I love the texture. This gives me nostalgic childhood vibes, though I was actually allergic to peanuts and chocolate growing up. So I’m reclaiming my childhood with gusto! I love it on toast with the aforementioned honey, or honestly, just a big spoonful as a satisfying snack because of the crunch. Peanut Butter Co. is a New York–based company, and it makes a great one. I go through jars of this stuff.

I am a sardine freak, and I love the addition of the preserved lemon in this one. The lemon is preserved in salt, so there is this salty, lemony, and acidic brightness. I eat these weekly by the entire tin. When I do my random weeknight dinners where it’s just a boiled egg and whatever vegetables I have in the refrigerator — we’ve all been there — adding these is an instant upgrade. I love them on toast with a ton of really good salted butter. I do a tinned-fish pasta where you use the oil from the tin, which is flavored with the lemon and the sardines, so it ends up being like a two-ingredient pasta at the end of the day, and it’s so good. It’s not the cheapest on the market, but it’s worth every penny as a ready-made product.

Once you’ve had Kewpie, it’s hard to go back. It’s a Japanese mayonnaise that is richer because of the amount of egg yolks it uses, and it’s got a little MSG in there. It really has a beautiful and creamy deliciousness that traditional mayonnaise doesn’t have. I use it on everything I possibly can. It comes in this great little squeeze bottle with the little Kewpie person on it, which is very satisfying to squeeze. You have two different tips: a small-squeeze tip and a star tip. It’s essentially a ready-made sauce. You do a little blob with the aforementioned sardines, and you’re in heaven.

These are the OG of the Asian pantry. These particular ones have a rounder cap — they’re called “flower-style” shiitakes. They rehydrate in water in minutes and are traditionally used in lots of Chinese cooking. They will sit in your pantry for a very long time, just like dried fruit. They have an intense mushroom flavor when rehydrated, and they’re tender and bouncy with a nice chew. For stir-fries, I rehydrate them and cut them in half. I’ve also diced or thinly sliced them to put in pasta, noodle dishes, or udon, and I’ve used them in braises. They’re best for quick cooking to preserve the texture, giving you an instant meaty element. I’ve also pulverized them from dry into a mushroom powder to add a deeper mushroom flavor to stews without using whole mushrooms.

Black garlic is essentially aged garlic that turns black. It takes away all the traditional, acrid, harsh flavor of raw garlic and turns it into something a little funky. Imagine roasted garlic with balsamic — there’s a total umami depth of flavor in there. It’s soft, and a few little cloves go a long way. It can live in your fridge for a very long time. It’s not an everyday thing that I grab, but I sleep better at night knowing that it’s there. I have a recipe in my cookbook for a braised short rib that uses it. There’s black garlic, wine, and not much else because it packs such a punch. If you love roasted garlic, this is the next level.

As an Asian, I grew up eating rice with every meal. We grew up with long-grain rice, but sushi rice has become my go-to now. There’s a little bit more texture to it, and it’s a little stickier. You can, of course, make actual sushi rice with it if you add rice-wine vinegar and sugar. But I use it regularly as is for many meals — like rice bowls — or just as a simple side. I use a pot on the stovetop, with the finger-in-the-water knuckle measurement method. It comes out right 99 percent of the time.

I’ve long espoused the virtues of five-spice powder. It is a blend of five spices: star anise, fennel, white pepper, cloves, and cinnamon. Growing up, we only used it in savory applications. My mom made her famous five-spice chicken every week like clockwork, with a crispy, glassy skin. At this point I’ve used it probably on most things — fish, vegetables, tofu. Tofu takes flavor like nobody’s business. If you’re doing crispy tofu, add five-spice powder to your cornstarch as part of the batter. I’ve found that it actually works beautifully in sweet applications as well. In my cookbook, I have an apple cake where I use five-spice powder.

I have jars of Rao’s in my pantry at all times. I’ve been using it for such a long time. I love the balance of acidity and sweetness. You just want that pure tomato flavor without too many distracting ingredients like heavy oregano, and the salt level is great for me. You can use it a million different ways: the pasta route, braising fish by dropping it in a shallow pan of sauce with vegetables to simmer, or making homemade pizza.

Anchovy sauce is essentially extract. If you like fish sauce, which is prevalent in Thai and Vietnamese cuisines, you’ll really like this. There’s a little less funk, and it’s a bit softer in its flavor profile. A few drops go a long way; the tiny bottle indicates how much you should be using. A few drops in marinara or meat sauce will bump up the savoriness. In a Caesar dressing, a few drops bump up that mouthwatering umami flavor. In any salad dressing, really, it’s a great secret ingredient.