All Things Food and Cooking

Essential: refined salt, white sugar, some tasty fat (see notes), garlic, black and red peppers, limes, smoked paprika, cinnamon, vanilla extract

Important: ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce, red wine vinegar, parsley, basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro seeds, MSG, cloves, EVOO, lard, butter, some chicken stock

Nice to have: allspice, juniper, coarse salt, sage, rosemary, cumin, sesame oil, fish stock, nutmeg, dill, aniseed, bay leaves, curry powder (I think it's garam masala?)

Typically not bothering with: onion and garlic powder (I like them, but they clump too much), store-bought spice mixes (I like making those at home).

Notes:

• by "refined" and "coarse" salt I mean solely the texture. Both are typically sea salt where I live.
• the white sugar in question is cane sugar.
• what I call "tasty fat" means EVOO, a yellower lard, or butter. I want at least one, in addition to the soy oil I use as an ingredient (not as seasoning — stuff has no taste, that's the point).
• I'm fairly specific on red wine vinegar. I'm not really a fan of apple vinegar, and what's locally sold as "alcohol vinegar" (it's 4% acetic acid, 96% water, and nothing else) is for me a cleaning agent, I almost never use it for cooking.
• "chicken stock" usually means bouillons for practical reasons, but I do prefer homemade stock. Same deal with fish stock, I usually buy Japanese dried dashi.