Yes, exactly. I finally figured out that I can flip it upside down = duh.

Nope. I've developed the Western anatomy - no longer comfortable stooping or squatting for very long. My ancestors would be ashamed. And the rain in PDX is a lot colder than the rain in the parts of Asia I've visited. I want to wok standing up, in a warm kitchen, listening to jazz and sipping a nice Cabernet from a long-stemmed glass.

that device is for the deep South Cajun anatomy

you could sit it on a wide stone wall etc. ...

That looks good for 20 years of use. the front and rear edge on ours (mother's) are rounded from use. Don't they all look like that?

Well, bunkie, we all must make sacrifices. When I lived in Singapore, the best Chinese food I ate came from a pushcart. The proprieter had likely never even heard of jazz, or wine, yet it didn't hurt his ability to cook.

You'll never do anything decent with a wok, in a house, unless you have the mother of all range hoods. I'm thinking 10-20,000 cfm. Using even a good home system from the better companies (Viking, etc.) will result in you learning what cave dwellers experienced when they invented cooking over a fire. When I cook, I use the whole-house attic fan for an hour to deal with the smoke.

How about this outdoor cooker. Taller? :

http://www.lalagniappe.com/mall/lobby-propane-wok.htm

that's twenty years use by my mom, and another twenty two by me.
i have always liked the square edge on it.

How did you keep it so square? After reading this thread, I decided to take my little kids to go see and play with grand ma and grand pa and of course eat my mother's cooking and to check out her cleavers just to varify is the same thing as yours. It is the exact one. I can't reading the writing on it but it look damn close along with the funky grip. Its been her daily driver also for the last 30+ years. I mean she uses to chop through chicken bones. I even sharpen it for her tonight while she bath my kids.

jeff

Viking hoods doesn't really work as well as others. My mother uses her wok daily and it doesn't necessary have to be that hot that you have to call the fire dept to put out the smoke. The reason why ther are so expensive is that the stainless they or all those high end mfg use are thicker and the weld and seams are highly polished and the finish is done very well. Of course, they perform ok.

Ok so had some friends over for dinner. One is a winemaker. We hAd his 2003 merlot 2006 bsrbera and 1999 merlot. As you can tell I did imbibe. Hic.

Cooked more Chinese and I cleArly need more heat. Going to get big burner xnd start cooking outside. Hic.

The rAnge just isn't doing it.

bought this in 1980 when i was working for beefsteak charlies.
i once sharpened an axe 'til it could slice tomatos.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1253110880.jpg

Come to think of it, my family never had a wok when I grew up, and all we cooked was Chinese. I don't remember any high heat stirfry, instead a lot of steaming, boiling, and sauté cooking in normal western cookware. Maybe the high heat stuff is more commercial cooking, not so much Chinese home cooking? I need to ask my dad.

What we think of when we eat Chinese food in this country isn't what the average Chinese person eats at home, ever. Most people wouldn't want what they eat on a daily basis....

A wok over very high heat is used worldwide in Chinese restaurants and on pushcarts and is a necessity, if you want a good stir-fried dish.

JR

I liked it (Chinese home cooking) as a kid. For sure the everyday meals were not the same as the big dinner gathering meals when my grandmother and aunts/uncles would turn out 10+ dishes. Usually a whole steamed or fried fish, a roasted duck, lots of veggies and other meats, soup, soybean milk, of course rice and onion pancakes. Mao tai for the elders, my dad's generation preferred wine. Hmm, what wine goes with chicken feet? Sometimes stuff that I don't usually see in Chinese restaurants in the US - chicken gizzards and hearts, sea cucumbers, 1000 year eggs, pig knuckles, fish head, etc. The everyday meals were much plainer, usually congee or fried rice, a sauteed veg, a meat. I liked those meals too. We never cooked Western, or hardly ever. Something like spaghetti or a grilled cheese sandwich was an unusual thing for me - strictly restaurant fare - until I was older. My grandmother would make me French-style snails, at my request and for a special treat, that was about all the Western cooking she ever did.

John, where do you shop for asian groceries in Portland? Thanks. :)

There are some good Asian grocers. Fubonn on SE 82nd is a big one with every sort of Asian food - Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. plus the live fish and shellfish. An Dong Market on SE Powell is a smaller grocer which still has a ton of stuff. Out west, there is Uwagimaya (sp?) in Beaverton which is a large and excellent Japanese grocer, with lots of fish and meat that is higher quality than the first two places. Also a small Japanese market right by the Convention Center, I have forgotten the name. For more live fish, ABC Seafood on SE something - can't recall at this moment - has big tanks of fish, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp, etc. There are more places but those are the ones I go to. Most of the Asian stuff is out by 82nd St or out in Beaverton area, because that's where more Asians live. One thing I am still looking for is a local source for sashimi-grade fish - oh, and an Asian restaurant supply place.

Thanks John. Uwajimaya is very nice but pricey compared to what we see here in the Wash DC metro area. When we were out there last time, we saw the market on SE Powell but didn't stop in. Next time we're in town, we'll check it out and we'll head over to SE 82nd. Thanks again! :)

Like many who ate Chinese at home when they were young or old, it's often not as fancy as the dishes one would order at a restaurant (Peking duck, scallops and veggies, lobster in black bean sauce, steamed fish, spicy salted squid, hot pot oysters, pickled pigs feet, chicken feet (that was in descending order for the American palate), and .........egg foo young for those who really like authentic Chinese food :eek:)

Chicken, beef and numerous veggie dishes can be cooked with a conventional frying pan, and stove flame or microwave and steamed rice from a cooker. Ouila, Chinese food from column A or B.

Chinese take out is an option for cooking too.

Are there farmer's markets in the area? If so, hunt them down. They often carry ethnic veggies especially near ethnic communities. They do have ethnic communities in Portland, don't they?

Sherwood

Sherwood, you're right on target. I am not a big fan of eating in Chinese restaurants; however, Chinese home cooking is great.

My wife uses a flat-bottom wok, and the large burner on our GE gas stove, and does great work. The range hood in our tiny place doesn't vent outside, so, we have to open a window whenever she's cooking. Our next home has to have a strong range hood that vents outside or I'll have to permantly move into the dog house. :eek:

Fortunately, Chinese home cooking can be relatively simple. That is, unless the home cooker isn't good cooking Chinese (dishes). I'd like to increase my Chinese cooking repertoire too.

Sherwood

When I was living in Singapore, we had a live-in maid who was Chinese. She had her own living quarters and cooked her own meals. I promise you, as much as I liked Chinese restaurant and street food in Singapore (and it is still some of the best in the world) nothing that she cooked was recognizable and the smell would run you out of the house. Chicken feet, compared to what she ate, would taste like a meal sent from heaven.

And I think chicken feet are vastly overrated...

JR