it really does depend on what sort of food you like to eat as to what you have in the pantry. we don't eat a lot of asian food, so the staples mentioned that mostly relate to asian don't make it into our cupboard

we have a "baking box" for cakes and things - has peppermint essence, orange essence, food coloring (not the ones from the supermarket though) ummmmm gelatine, chocolate chips, marshmallows and icing sugar (to make marshmallow icing if we want it), sprinkles, patty pans etc

our sauce rack scares even me to look at - i couldn't list them all - but DH likes variety, so there are always there. i think there are about a dozen different sauces for different meals. i can't keep up! if it isn't something you have with tomato sauce or gravy, i don't need sauce on it lol

fresh garlic, onion and spuds - always in the bottom of the pantry

tinned fruit (usually pineapple - either for adding to meals like pizza or for using in cakes make them more interesting)
baked beans
condensed milk

four different types of cereal (we buy different each fortnight just so we have variety) - rice bubbles (or generic version - which we use in making slices and stuff as well), cornflakes (again, dual use) special k and porridge/oats. special k is about the only one that doesn't have dual purposes now that i think about it!

bread crumbs
golden syrup
honey

damn, listing all the "must have in the cupboard" items is near impossible!