Carryout staples

In the pasta sauce thread, ews wrote:I quit buying commercial sauces about a year ago. Now I just pay $12 at Sabatino's and they fill up one of those industrial sour cream containers.

This made we wonder what other ingredients or pantry staples people are buying from restaurants to use for meals at home, either items they package intentionally for sale, or -- especially -- things you ask them to pack up.

I'm semi-notorious for buying tobiko from sushi joints when I'm making it at home, and don't wanna run up to Mitsuwa or the joint just south of Mitsuwa. Sometimes masago, (which is more readily available at other Asian mkts) just won't cut it for me. I find tobiko brighter, and crunchier.

Also, plain white rice. Sometimes I get caught up in making the Indian food, or Thai food or whatever, and I forget to get the rice cooker started until after everything's done. I just call up the closest Chinese joint round the corner, and order plain white rice for a buck.

Sometimes I'll call up one of the Chinese joints for fried appetizers (egg rolls, crab rangoon, fried chicken wings, pot stickers) when I'm doing a stir fry and want to balance out the nutritional food I'm making with greezy good stuff.

Samosa, paratha, naan. I can't find any good, frozen samosa. They always seem to be oversalted. Baba Palace is my samosa ideal. Anytime I'm close, I'll grab several if they are in stock. If I'm making Indian food at home, and I happen to be in the vicinity of a reasonable Indian place, I will always stop and get paratha for the meal. Naan sometimes, paratha, always. The frozen commercial paratha doesn't even come close. I should prolly order 100 of em from Gareeb Nawaz, and freeze em.

On the occasions when I make Horseshoe Sandwiches at home, I will pick up the french-fries instead of making them myself. Lazy, I know.

When doing a Korean meal, especially when I have guests, I will also buy an assortment of banchan pre-made just to simplify things and to be able to offer a larger variety.

I should have specified that I'm not only interested what kinds of things you're getting from restaurants, but which restaurants you're getting them from.

Seebee, whose fried apps do you like? And which sushi spots will do you a tub of tobiko? (And how much does something like that run?) Ursiform, where do you get your banchan?

LAZ wrote:I should have specified that I'm not only interested what kinds of things you're getting from restaurants, but which restaurants you're getting them from.

For banchan, Joong Boo Market and Super H Mart, but Clark Market used to be my favorite. For french fries, there is a McDonalds located very close to my house that I've used in the past as the fries fit the bill (shoot me, I like thin, crisp fries on my Horseshoes) and I can get them home piping hot. However, with the opening of Red Hot Ranch, I've switched over to their fries. Not quite as close, but I can still get them home quickly and in good order.

On occasion, I've also been known to buy the meat sauce from La Gondola, but that is fairly infrequent.