Job Discussion Forums

[featherp]

Are the following items available in china generally?
Baking powder/soda
Dried (or fresh) yeast
White flour (plain or self raising)
Butter
Cream
Small convection oven, I.e 35 litre counter top version

Chef here, wanting to know what to stock up on before moving to China in 2 weeks. Will be living 45 minutes from Weifang. Thanks for your help.

[sistercream]

Baking powder/soda - no problem
Dried (or fresh) yeast - not commonly used in Chinese home cooking, so unlikely that you'll find it in the local supermarket. In first tier cities you should be able to find a specialty baking goods store; in second or third tier cities you might get lucky at an "import store". In smaller places, either develop good guanxi with folks at the local "western" bread bakery, or ship your supplies in.
White flour (plain or self raising) - plain flour, no problem. SR flour not so common.
Butter - no problem.
Cream - big cities, OK; in smaller places you might need to head to the import store again.
Small convection oven, I.e 35 litre counter top version - counter-top ovens no problem; I presume convection versions can at least be ordered through a chain like Suning or Gome if they don't have them in stock. But if you are in an older building you cannot automatically assume that the wiring will be able to handle the power drawn

[kev7161]

If you go to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai (and I can personally throw in Suzhou and Hangzhou), you'll easily find a venue for all of these items. I would imagine in most other large-ish cities, you will as well - - you may just have to search a little harder. If you're heading off to Mongolia or some such place, it may be a little more challenging for you. There's always Taobao though.

[Miajiayou]

It is easy to get all of those things in Nanjing, at my local Chinese store. I find packets of yeast with all of the other spices.

But, all of the dairy products I find there are of horrific quality, which would of course affect the quality of the finished product. I can get decent ones at Metro or Auchan, but they are pricey. You'll probably have to get creative if you don't have a really good foreign supermarket around, especially if you always want to have some on hand (after a few years here, those things have been relegated to special occasions for me)

[roadwalker]

I wouldn't expect to have any of that available, save the white flour and butter possibly. It really depends. My last city in Zhejiang province had a large expat population but I couldn't for the life of me find baking soda (碳酸氢钠, 炭酸氢纳，小苏打；发面苏打) but elsewhere I had been able to find it in large supermarkets.

Ask current teachers at your school or in the area, they should know what's available locally. If not available, you have at least two other options:

1. Turn a holiday in one of the major cities such as Beijing or Shanghai into a shopping holiday for things you can't find locally; or

2. Find a student or teacher to help you use Taobao online (in Chinese language only) to have the things you can't find shipped to you. (I haven't used this so far, but it seems to have proponents on this forum.)

Either one of those alternatives is preferable to bringing butter in your carry-on.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

[Zero]

[Kurochan]

I've found baking soda to be a little hard to find. If there are any stores in your area that cater to Japanese people, those would be places to look for it. Dried yeast in little packets hasn't been too hard to find -- it seems a lot of it comes from Russia here, or at least has Russian on the packet.

You should be able to find a good convection oven at Carrefour, if there is one in your town.

[kev7161]

Just reread the OP. Where is Weifeng? Which province and is it near a major city as mentioned above?

[Yu]

can't find it in the store? Try Taobao!

It saves hassles of trying to track down a store and something can get delivered to your doorstep! I checked and both yeast and baking soda were there.

We had a espresso machine and really liked caramel lattes.... caramel sauce was delivered to our door. It was perfect! And the price is reasonable too!

[featherp]

Thanks for all the tips, weifang is in Shandong province, about 4.5 hours from Beijing by train.

[choudoufu]

Baking powder/soda

some expat shops, possibly metro/c4 carry clabber baking powder and
arm&hammer baking soda. you can find some stuff on the local market,
but hard to tell if its powder or soda. i suppose it would matter to a chef.

Dried (or fresh) yeast

can usually be found in supermarkets, both large and small, in the section
with the spices or dried seaweed, usually in 15g packets. if you find a
metro, you can buy in 500g vacuum packs.

White flour (plain or self raising)

both available. you can buy 500g bags or in bulk. have someone
write out the chinese for 'self-rising.' try at the small stalls at the
veggie markets. they'll also have whole grain flour and corn flour.

Butter

c4/trust-mart/metro. otherwise rare. i usually have to substitute
veggie oil.

Cream

metro.

Small convection oven, I.e 35 litre counter top version

generally available, even in some small towns. check out gome or
suning or c4. smaller towns will have them in the home appliance
shops, usually 300-500 rmb. galanz is a good brand, but i've
heard tomato isn't too shabby neither. if you want to spend the
bread, you can get a full-size oven for around 8000 rmb.

as for cookin' gear, if you can find a metro, they carry all sorts of
import stuff.....teflon pizza pans, muffin pans, pasta makers, cappucino
machinos, and all the necessary kitchen widgets.

also, find out where 'kitchen street' is located in your town. that'll be
the district where all the restaurants source their goodies. just ask
the manager at a decent restaurant where he buys the kitchen equipment
and staff uniforms. this area will also have bakery/pizzeria ovens
which you can pick up cheap second-hand.

if you need special-sized baking tins, try 'metal-shop street.' the guys
that make the sheet-metal ductwork can make most anything.

the above two areas should also have stainless steel tables/counters
on hand or made to order. kitchens in chinese apartments are way
tiny with no counter space..........

what to bring?

can opener. very little in cans here, other than tomato paste. hard to
open with a cleaver. so good luck explaining the concept of can opener
to a shop employee who has no idea what a can is....you can find them
here with a bit of searching, but they are all poor quality, handles and
gears fall off after a few uses.

[kev7161]

Choudoufu - - excellent ideas! However, I find butter almost at any supermarket, even a little convenience store near my home sells "Bright" brand.

Suki brand (I guess from Japan?) is becoming more popular around this area. They have string cheese (mozarella), butter, cream, in-the-can whipped topping (you know, the kind you can squirt directly into your mouth if you have a mind to), cream cheese, cream cheese spread with garlic and chives, and a couple other things I can't think of right now.

Land O' Lakes from the US is fairly common here as well with butter, margarine, various cheeses from mild to sharp cheddar and others as well.

Once again to the OP: I'm talking about Suzhou . . . couldn't tell you about Shandong province or your city, but if you can find Carrefour (or maybe Tesco?), you may find most of what you need.