Wing Yip Supermarket, Birmingham

I decide to have a few friends round for a meal on New Year's Eve for food. As students, such a gathering usually involves a phone call to the local takeaway. However we decided on Chinese and I knew I'd feel bad enough on New Year's Day from the alcohol without risking food contamination!

So I decided to cook. I went to the local Chinese supermarket, Wing Yip in Nechells, Birmingham.

When I first went in a was a bit disillusioned. You enter at the sauces section and after reading the ingredients of a few jars it became apparent that there was not much in that section I could eat. But I persevered and soon found some sweet chilli dipping sauce and fish sauce flavouring that were GF (and surprisingly cheap.) Further round I found rice paper cases for making spring rolls, or to serve with crispy duck, tapioca flour and vermicelli noodles made from peas, corn starch and green beans.



I was temporarily distracted by the alcohol section (!) where I bought some Sake - rice based spirit as seen at Wagamamas etc.

Further round I found coconut milk and a Singapore curry sauce that were both GF.

But the visit for me had two gems. The first was Hutu porridge which is corn based and seems really easy to make (haven't tried it yet - will report back when I have.) The second was a confectionery product. It was flaky rice pastry filled with red bean paste and topped with sesame seeds. There were 4 in the pack and they were slightly sweet. I really like them. In fact I'm off to test some recipes for Chinese rice pastry. I'll let you know when I find a good one.

So a visit to your local Chinese supermarket is very much recommended.

Oh and my bill came to £13 which included the sake, some chopsticks and some vegetarian soy bean starters as well as the other things I have mentioned. Not a bad deal!