Thread: What is a list of essential ingredients for an asian restaurant?

My mother wants to open a Filipino restaurant and is making me create a foodcost spread sheet for her. What kind of things go into Filipino food I don't need recipes just ingredients.

You can't create an accurate food cost document without knowing what the menu is first.

For example - I know this isn't real but it is extreme - lets say she decided to put Lobster on the menu...that is going to increase food costs dramatically - but only if lobster is on the menu. Same for sourcing food - lets say she has a white-fish menu item, is it frozen white fish or fresh? That greatly affects food cost.

You cannot create any sort of accurate spreadsheet of how much ingredients cost until you know what ingredients are going to be used.

As with most Asian countries, the staple food in the Philippines is rice. It is most often steamed and served during meals. Leftover rice is often fried with garlic and onions to make sinangag (fried rice), which is usually served at breakfast together with fried eggs and tapa (beef), tocino (sweetened cured meat), longanisa (sausages), or fried hotdogs.

Rice is often enjoyed with sauces or soup from the main dishes. In some regions, rice is mixed with salt, condensed milk, cocoa, or coffee. Rice flour is used in making sweets, cakes and other pastries. Other staples derived from crops include corn and bread.

Fruits are often used in cooking as well. Coconuts, coconut milk, coconut meat, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bananas are usually added to meals. Abundant harvests of root crops occur all year round. Potatoes, carrots, taro (gabi), cassava (kamoteng kahoy), purple yam (ube), and sweet potato (kamote) are examples. Kamote and a certain type of plantain called saba can be chopped, dusted with brown sugar, fried and skewered, yielding kamote-cue and banana-cue which are popular caramelized snacks.

Meat staples include chicken, pork, beef, and fish. Seafood is popular as a result of the bodies of water surrounding the archipelago. Popular catches include tilapia, catfish (hito), milkfish (bangus), grouper (lapu-lapu), shrimp (hipon), prawns (sugpo), mackerel (galunggong), swordfish, oysters (talaba), mussels (tahong), clams (tulya), large and small crabs (alimango and alimasag respectively), game fish, gindara or sablefish, tuna, cod, blue marlin, and squid/cuttlefish (both called pusit). Equally popular catches include seaweeds, abalone and eel.

As with most Asian countries, the staple food in the Philippines is rice. It is most often steamed and served during meals. Leftover rice is often fried with garlic and onions to make sinangag (fried rice), which is usually served at breakfast together with fried eggs and tapa (beef), tocino (sweetened cured meat), longanisa (sausages), or fried hotdogs.

Rice is often enjoyed with sauces or soup from the main dishes. In some regions, rice is mixed with salt, condensed milk, cocoa, or coffee. Rice flour is used in making sweets, cakes and other pastries. Other staples derived from crops include corn and bread.

Fruits are often used in cooking as well. Coconuts, coconut milk, coconut meat, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bananas are usually added to meals. Abundant harvests of root crops occur all year round. Potatoes, carrots, taro (gabi), cassava (kamoteng kahoy), purple yam (ube), and sweet potato (kamote) are examples. Kamote and a certain type of plantain called saba can be chopped, dusted with brown sugar, fried and skewered, yielding kamote-cue and banana-cue which are popular caramelized snacks.

Meat staples include chicken, pork, beef, and fish. Seafood is popular as a result of the bodies of water surrounding the archipelago. Popular catches include tilapia, catfish (hito), milkfish (bangus), grouper (lapu-lapu), shrimp (hipon), prawns (sugpo), mackerel (galunggong), swordfish, oysters (talaba), mussels (tahong), clams (tulya), large and small crabs (alimango and alimasag respectively), game fish, gindara or sablefish, tuna, cod, blue marlin, and squid/cuttlefish (both called pusit). Equally popular catches include seaweeds, abalone and eel.