As frustrating as it is to shop for gluten/wheat-free food China, I never stop looking for things that I can add to our gluten-free pantry. Looking for seasonings is probably the most frustrating as most Chinese seasonings contain soy sauce, wheat, MSG, ‘spices’, and ‘seasonings’. However, without a variety of ingredients and seasonings in the kitchen, it’s hard to make food tasty. That is why I’m always on the lookout for gluten-free seasonings in both the local and import sections of supermarkets here.
Lately, I’ve found quite a number of Aroy-D brand Thai products that appear to be gluten-free. You can find a few items in the import section of Carrefour (JinQiao) or you can order them on Taobao.
Here’s a few items that I’ve added to our gluten-free pantry.
|
Sweet Chilli Sauce for Chicken
Ingredients: sugar, water, chilli, salt, garlic, modified corn starch, acetic acid as acidity regulators, xanthan gum |
Coconut Milk
Ingredients: coconut extract, water |
|
Red Curry Paste Ingredients: dried red chilli, garlic, lemon grass, shallot, salt, galangal, kaffir lime peel, spices (coriander seed, cumin powder) |
Fish Sauce
Ingredients: anchovy extract, salt, sugar |
| Rice Paper (春卷皮)  Ingredient: Rice, water |
(Note: The ingredients do not contain gluten/wheat items, but that does not mean the manufacturing equipments are gluten/wheat-free. If you are highly sensitive to gluten/wheat, try them at your discretion.)
There are many other Aroy-D items that I have yet to try. Carrefour has a limited selection, but if you search Aroy-D (安来利) online, you’ll find quite a selection of products that are gluten-free. You can also search Taobao.com (China) or Amazon.com (U.S.).
My husband loves Thai food, so I was quite happy to find these items. The sweet chilli sauce makes great dipping sauce to eat with anything (meat, eggrolls, potstickers, etc…). Fish sauce and coconut milk are key ingredients for many Thai dishes. I also use coconut milk as cream substitutes for cooking/baking. I use coconut milk to make dairy free homemade ice cream. The rice paper makes AMAZING eggrolls (both deep fried and fresh/raw) that are both crunchy and chewy. The eggrolls turned out to be a 10/10 and is blog-worthy, so I will be writing a post on that soon.
Noor mohammad said
September 14 2010 @ 10:20 pm
hello im noor mohammad director of Noor bangladesh busness group i am intarsting to import thai product please can you contact tome my phone is 0034664022880 thanks
Mary Garrard said
October 7 2010 @ 9:50 am
Hello, I will be traveling to China at the end of October staying through early November. I’ve talked with our tour leader about my diet. He thinks it would be good to go to a grocery store the first day so I can get some back-up food. We’ll be spending the first night at the Ramada Hotel on 1888 Huangxing Road.
(http://www.ramada.com/Ramada/control/Booking/property_info?propertyId=18536)
I would be so grateful if you have any suggestions about nearby stores where I might be able to shop. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be gluten free food, I just want something I can eat if all else fails, which it most certainly is likely to do! Another GF person said that in China she ate a lot of white food, presumably white rice! It would be fantastic to be able to eat anything, but I will be happy to just get enough to keep me from being too hungry!
I would also like to know if you have experience in bringing food into China. I haven’t been able to find any regulations about this.
Many thanks for any information you can give me.
You are welcome to email me (if you are able to see the one I gave above).
Mary Garrrd