Eggs for me.
If we’re talking non meat then onion, spinach, pumpkin, tofu and taro.
No mention of garlic?
Any of the spices in five spice powder, or said powder.
Soy sauce.
Tomatoes.
Garlic 100%.
Always have garlic powder and 3-6 heads of garlic in my kitchen and I am not above roasting a couple of them heads at a moments notice so I can toss roasted garlic into anything.
My wife hates me lol
Garlic is the only answer for me. I double the garlic quantity in any recipe that calls for it. It’s just so good
When I started cooking, I thought a “clove” was the whole head of garlic. It tasted about right to me. XD
“Garlic is not measured with spoons but with the heart”
Someone once posted that on reddit, I believe it.
I like every month or two buying a pound of onions, run em over the mandolin and spend an afternoon doing a nice slow caramelize on em. Reduce em down to a cup or so of dark brown amazingness, toss it in the fridge and add into a bunch of food just like I do roasted garlic.
I’m not sure how much smell is factored into people’s enjoyment of garlic, but my nose basically doesn’t work (and not because of covid), maybe that’s why. It’s a nice to have but not that high for me. Disclaimer though, I am Asian. It’s just my preference. For example, while garilic is really nice on fried food, I’d rather have them with salted egg sauce, pepper sauce, various spicy condiment etc. There are so many things to add for flavouring and I’m not particularly picky. I do know someone who’s a garlic fiend though.
As for eggs, there are so many dishes here with eggs or eggs as a topping, you could have eggs in all your meal for a day and it wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary. Like, in a lot of western cultures it’s probably normal to have fried eggs on their own in the morning or something. Here it’s very easy to just put fried egg or crispy omelette on rice and it won’t be strange. Not to mention you can put them in noodles, soup and so on.
Hot peppers. Whether it’s jalapeno, cayenne, habanero, Thai chilis, ghost pepper, or even the milder ones like banana peppers, they’re all great. :D
Garlic and cilantro (or Kulantro … if your a genetic freak…) come before peppers for me.
But peppers find their way in most my cooking. I use vodka or gin (or any neutral-ish booze) to soak the peppers and extract the capsaicin. this gives you better control of the capsaicin content relative to everything else (including all the amazing flavors in the peppers themselves.)
Also makes for a moment of hilarity when your brother’s in laws are over and decide to raid your liquor cabinet for a vesper. (Which… even Ian Fleming thought was god awful)
Cilantro is interesting because to me it doesn’t really taste like anything, but in a dish where I’m used to seeing it on top it just feels so wrong when it’s not there.
Smoked paprika
How has no one said potatoes, or rice yet? They are both so incredibly versatile.
Personally, it’s potato. A large amount of cuisines use them and in wildly different ways sometimes.
Preserved lemon. It’s pickled, fermented lemon. Discovered it in Moroccan dishes, and it is heavenly.
