Hey everyone! I just moved to Guangzhou. Back in Spain, I mostly used olive oil, but I've noticed it's super expensive here. What kind of cooking oil do people usually use? I’m looking for a good alternative that’s more budget-friendly.
Also, which supermarkets would you recommend for affordable grocery shopping? Thanks in advance!
How much cooking oil do you actually use? I just buy a big bottle, then pour in a spray bottle, that I use when cooking. A 750ml for less than 100 rmb, and last for a couple of months... not sure how much it is in Spain, but you won't be saving too much money on that.
Maybe someone in south can recommend supermarkets, in Beijing, Hema has better quality stuff but more expensive, YH is ok, Wumart feels cheapest. If you are ok with buying in bulk, Sam's Club has high quality at good price, but you need to buy a yearly membership.
Cheapest will almost always be Taobao.
What kind of cooking do you usually do?
If you want specifically Mediterranean flavors obviously specifically Olive Oil is rather important. You can get bottles of Andorinha via Macau on Taobao for ~70 kuai for a 750mL bottle. Obviously this would get expensive as an everyday cooking oil - I only keep it for when I’m making that sort of food (or when I want to dip crusty bread into something).
A good everyday cooking oil in China is peanut oil. It’s the standard cooking oil in Guangdong and Guangxi, but you should be able to get it anywhere. Peanut oil in China is very high quality - it’s naturally pressed and not refined, bleached, or deodorized (the good brands, at least)… basically, it still smells like peanut. Look for a bottle that says “4S” on it.
If you do a lot of Chinese cooking (Southwest, Central, Northwest style at least), China also has very good rapeseed oil - caiziyou. Similar to peanut, the not-RBD sort actually have a ton of fragrance to them. Ask for “菜籽油” but look for a bottle with the deepest brown color that you can find - good caiziyou will be brackish and have a viscosity to it. If you’re in a small city you can even find small workshops that press it. These flavors aren’t usually a very good match for western food, though it can work quite well for Indian food if you make those cuisines (though Indian food has its own sourcing headaches in China).
Besides these two, soybean oil (which is neutral and meh) and lard round out the four most common cooking oils in China. Depending where you live, lard may be purchase-able in tubs, or you may need to render your own (some households/restaurants may also have schmaltz, but this you’d definitely need to render yourself). Re butter, the better Chinese brands of butter are fine for frying, but you’ll want imported French butter for baking. You can also find sunflower oil, which I personally keep as a neutral-ish deep frying oil.
If you’re cooking western food… my suggestion is a mix of good Chinese peanut oil, Andorinha from Taobao, and lard if you have it available and/or feel like rendering it yourself (if you add salt to the lard and keep it in the fridge, it can keep months).
You cooked with Olive Oil?
The smoke point of olive oil is quite low.
I guess the main thing they use is sunflower oil, peanut oil or vegetable/rapeseed oil for frying.
Most of southern Europe cooks with olive oil to be fair. Wouldn’t work with most Chinese dishes that use a super high flame.
Is butter, beef tallow or lard a thing there? I haven't moved to China yet and am wondering
Lard was the default before seed oils. Now they seem to go crazy for peanut oil.
Yes lard is widely used in China, much to the pain of unsuspecting vegetarians.
Depending on where you live, you might be able to purchase it from tubs at the market or you might not (where I live in Yunnan now I can, in Guangdong I can’t). Many people will render their own at home as it’s known to have a better flavor that way - rendering lard takes about 45 minutes and if you add a little salt it can keep for months in the fridge.
Another common homestyle move I’ve seen for lard is, if you get some pork belly (a very common cut in Chinese cooking) that’s a little on the fatty side, first render out some of the excess lard for a few minutes before using it in a dish. Scoop out the extra oil, and keep it in a small metal bowl on the side of your stove as a cooking oil over the next couple of days.
Another route would be to start a dish with a bit of peanut or soybean oil, and as a step one of sorts fry a bit of sliced pork belly or pork fat and lightly render it to make a “hybrid oil” (混合油). Very common - and delicious - with vegetable dishes
I also have beef tallow in my kitchen, purchased from a beef supplier in Inner Mongolia, easily purchased online with Taobao
Not a thing.
Lard is absolutely a thing. In Chinese cuisine, vegetables are cooked with animal fat.
No not really. 99% oils.
you sure? because i have lard in my kitchen. chinese brand. hell, mom made her own several times.
Yes, not common.
not a thing and not common are not the same words.
and you're so wrong
Sunflower seeds are incredibly rich sources of many essential minerals. Calcium, iron, manganese, zinc, magnesium, selenium, and copper are especially concentrated in sunflower seeds. Many of these minerals play a vital role in bone mineralization, red blood cell production, enzyme secretion, hormone production, as well as in the regulation of cardiac and skeletal muscle activities.
Also high in linoleic acid, PUFA rich as well as not being cold pressed like olive oil. Most of the benefits you mention found in sunflower seed oil will be stripped away during; solvent extraction, degumming, neutralization, bleaching and deodorization. This goes for most seed oils, but I feel like I may barking up the wrong tree with a user name such as theSanflowerSeed.
Buy stuff on Taobao. Many things, especially things out of the ordinary, are super overpriced at supermarkets.
Avocado oil is pretty good, you can get it on taobao. As well as aceite de oliva virgen extra, but I would save that for salads or dishes that don't require high fire.
That’s more expensive than Olive oil. They wanted something affordable
Hmm you are right, it's not exactly affordable. I think its worth it though, its something you use almost every single time you cook and affects your health.
In case they still want an affordable oil, peanut oil is commonly used here and cheaper
Backup of the post's body: Hey everyone! I just moved to Guangzhou. Back in Spain, I mostly used olive oil, but I've noticed it's super expensive here. What kind of cooking oil do people usually use? I’m looking for a good alternative that’s more budget-friendly.
Also, which supermarkets would you recommend for affordable grocery shopping? Thanks in advance!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Peanuts
I remember that back home, my mom used to buy lard or rapeseed oil.
Sam club
In Metro 3liter extra virgin is 280 rmb
Metro has left China a few years ago, the Shanghai stores were sold and are now called Maidelong. Dunno if the same happened in Guangzhou.
They've literally always been called 麦德龙 in Chinese, and they still display the English name as well. Metro Germany only has a minor stake in Metro China since COVID, but that isn't reflected in a name change or anything like that.
They no longer display or use the Metro name, at the least not at the one next to us in Pudong where we shop frequently. Even the app and website writes “Maidelong” as its English name (in the few places they don’t use the characters). Any Metro branded products have also disappeared and are replaced by its own 麦德龙 brand. Logo is different as well.
You're right, I went through the Baidu pictures and apparently they took the METRO letters down here sometime in 2022. I didn't even notice.
Buy the Sam’s Club membership. Shopping In The store and almost free home expedient delivery.
Haha, I buy EVOO from Aldi in the UK and take 4 or 5 bottles back. It’s ridiculously expensive in China.
Can you use cold pressed peanut oil?
Go get some pig oil. Chinese used it for hundreds of years. It’s like the Chinese butter.
I get olive oil from taobao.
As an Italian cousin I prefer as well olive oil but for cooking you can also go with sunflower oil.