KITCHEN PRACTICE 1 — Pantry Audit
==================================================
Chapter: Chinese Cookery 1 — Foundations & the Chinese Pantry

TASK
----
Audit your own pantry against this chapter's own list, and note
which missing items are needed soonest.

WHAT TO DO
----------
Go through the chapter's own pantry section item by item and check
off what you already have on hand:

  [ ] Light soy sauce
  [ ] Dark soy sauce
  [ ] Shaoxing wine
  [ ] Toasted sesame oil
  [ ] White rice vinegar
  [ ] Black (Chinkiang) vinegar
  [ ] Oyster sauce
  [ ] Cornstarch
  [ ] A neutral, high-smoke-point oil (for actual cooking)

Then look ahead at what's coming:

  - Chapter 3 (the Holy Trinity) needs fresh ginger, garlic, and
    scallion, alongside light soy and Shaoxing wine — the most
    urgent gap if you're missing either.
  - Chapter 4 (velveting) needs cornstarch and egg white — worth
    having cornstarch on hand well before then.
  - Dark soy sauce and black vinegar aren't needed until later
    chapters (7 and 9 respectively), so there's no rush sourcing
    those two specifically.

WHY THIS MATTERS
----------------
Most of this chapter's pantry is available at a well-stocked
Asian grocery store, and increasingly at ordinary supermarkets too
— the real discipline here is knowing which of two similar-looking
bottles (light vs. dark soy, white vs. black vinegar) a given recipe
actually wants, not sourcing something exotic. Doing this audit now
means Chapter 3's aromatics don't stall on a missing bottle of
Shaoxing wine.