infernooo

OK I called my friend, and he said the company that manufactured them has stopped making this particular model & he only has 2 left (he originally bought 5 for various friends but 2 bailed out).. I will get him to call the company and ask if they have any surplus or outlets that they have previously sold to who may have stock left.

Firstly thank you to the person who corrected my incorrect spelling of wok in the title , I tried to change it but there doesnt seem to be an option once someone has replied. Alex: I will check it out for you and give my friend a call, I'm sure if the company knew that quite a few people wanted them there would be no problem having them shipped. Sheetz: Couldn't agree more! Instead of everything sitting in the bottom/middle of the wok, I can swirl it around the edges and the heat is just as fierce around the sides. So the food is always cooking and I can cook larger amounts more evenly (there isnt a bottom layer getting overcooked and a top layer not being cooked at all). Coquus: I went through the same thing... I was going to go for a commercial chinese wok stove, but I realised I would have problems getting it installed by a gas guy (he would have to be slipped some $$ to look past the illegal/dangerous aspect), but the main problem was where to stick the thing as it is huge! As you have seen they have water constantly flowing over the metal surface to cool things down and I wouldnt have enough room for it. Its hot here today (91 degrees F), but as soon as I get the chance, I will definately be cooking up a storm and trying to take photos (or get someone else to take photos to avoid things burning ).

It cost AU$180, so about US$140 not including shipping (which wasnt too horrific considering it must weigh around 50 pounds). I jumped at the opportunity because the ex-leased wok burners from restaurants were selling for around AU$1500 for single jet burners with similar output levels. Very wise idea, after first turning it on I realised that outdoors was my best bet... the heat coming from the flame is just too intense for the roof inside my house (even though it is not very low), and because of a lack of an exhaust fan that is high enough Avumede - you are right, the wok starts smoking almost instantly, and last night I used it just to sear a steak in a big cast iron skillet.... I got a steak-house sear in about 5 seconds each side, popped it in the oven to finish - perfect! But it did leave a *lot* of smoke behind.

Propane... which is fine with me as propane burns hotter... but I must say that this thing eats through the tank of lpg pretty damn quickly even though its using very high pressure!

Malawry: I sure do! if I put them in one by one then things turn ugly pretty quickly! For example, the sauce for the noodle dish I made the other night has: 1TB light soy, 1TB rice wine, 1/2 ts salt, 1/2 ts sugar, 1/2 ts sesame oil, 1 cup chicken stock. The only thing I put in separately was the rice wine because it just feels right to put it in the "dry" wok and cook it out like you would brandy in a western dish. If I were to put the soy or sugar or sesame oil in by itself it would burn almost instantly... but all mixed together with the chicken stock it works quite well! I have about 2-3 seconds of stirring and the sauce has already boiled. So I guess its advantages (the heat) are also the disadvantages as it reduces the ability to adlib (you can turn the heat down... but wheres the fun in that!? ) and you really do need everything ready. I think a good intermediate result would be to have it on full-bore, do the stir frying, then lower the heat for the sauce... this way you could taste it and correct the seasonings or anything that seems missing. Either way, thanks for the kind words everyone! I will ask my friend if they are easy to buy/ship (I dont think they are intended for home/domestic use).

Thanks! I plan to start trying some of the amazing-looking things you have been cooking in your threads in the Chinese subforum... Luckily I do have a very good exhaust fan, but the problem is the heat is too intense and the exhaust fan too low (its a standard overhead cooktop exhaust fan), so I pretty much have to cook outside or in the garage or anywhere that has a high roof clearance (this thing could melt the paint on the roof if its too low!). Edit: haha I can't believe I mispelled "wok" in the thread title.

Hi everyone, My flamethrower - oops I mean wok burner has finally arrived! I got a friend living in Thailand to send it to me via snail mail (sea mail) and a month later, its here! I've been trying to recreate that taste that appears to only be obtainable from the huge gas powered woks in chinese & thai restaurants/takeaways. This elusive "wok hey".... and now I can confirm that I am able to get similar results... sure the marinades and sauces are kept secret, but thats just a process of trial and error... now that I've got the equipment there is no stopping me . Last night I made a dish similar to that known as "ants climbing trees" - a mixture of stirfried pork mince, soy, rice wine, bean thread noodles with some tobanjiang (chilli bean paste) and other assorted sauces and ingredients. I cannot describe the difference between cooking on this and my stove top wok burner (which is not bad at all, it puts out about 20000 btu according to the manual). Instead of the mince oozing out water and liquid and it almost boiling in its own juices, the second that the water/meat juices come out, they _instantly_ evaporate, so that even with a tiny amount of oil, the mince is being stirfried not boiled. Due to the high heat, the meat gets this unique flavour that was never present with my stovetop wok burner, and it gets that beautiful caramelised colour too. The only problem is that you have to have EVERYTHING ready and you have to be extremely quick handed... leave something for 5 seconds without stirring and its burnt... put the sauce in and turn around - by the time you turn back again it has evaporated and the sugars in it have burnt. Its all about speed and when you get it right oh man, its beautiful. Anyways enough raving on... I have tried to take photos, but either I have a really crappy digital camera, or flames are VERY hard to capture properly. I tried it at night and during the day, with and without a flash, with and without lights on... so I have included the best shots I could get. All I can say in addition is that these photos do not do the flame justice. The SOUND of the flame is scary enough on its own, sounds like someone has cut open a huge city-wide gas pipe and your ear is right next to the high pressured gas rushing out. And the flame itself is completely blue when its set to the highest, and about 1.5 feet high. This little baby uses a high pressure regulator and runs off LPG.. at its peak, it is putting out 120000 - 125000 BTUs (per hour). Day shot of the wok burner in action on "Medium-high" setting: Night shot of the wok burner on "Medium-high" setting: Night shot of the wok burner on "Medium" setting: Night shot of the wok burner on "High" setting... notice the blue flame wrapping around the wok. Night shot of the wok burner on "High" setting... notice the blue flame wrapping around the wok... futhermore, notice the wok actually glowing orange because it is so hot (this shot is about 20 seconds after I turned it on)

Hi there, Just a few questions... Did you use the chewy recipe? How did they turn out? were they cooked all the way through and chewy in the middle or fudgy and raw-like? Do you have a conventional or electric fan-based oven? Thanks!

Hi there! Being an aussie, I can tell you that this is exactly what a "barbie" is when someone asks you over for a barbie. The thing about barbies is that there is nothing special about the food, its all about the social activity (its a chance to get your friends over for food + drinks). It's usually overcooked supermarket sausages and mediocre cuts of steak charred to within an inch of their lives and onions that have been cooked until brown (this is probably the only bit that is usually done quite well. However, this charring of steaks & sausages is not always the case, it depends on who's hosting the barbie and if they have any experience... a lot of people are actually quite good at cooking steaks and sausages on the grill plate whereas others are horrendous). While barbies range from whole rumps of lamb cooked in webers over coals to lamb chops & cutlets, t-bone steaks, sausages (and perhaps kebabs with chunks of meat, onion, red + green capsicum) cooked on the hot plate, there is no real recipe, it is mostly just plain meat cooked, then people use plain white sliced bread, slap on a steak/sausage, top with some of the bbq'd onions and top with tomato sauce. As most australians tend to follow the british influence, christmas for most people is bought cooked prawns (perhaps with seafood sauce), roast beef with hollandaise sauce, and most importantly, a leg of ham and some roast turkey. Also lots of small side dishes are included like creamy potato salad, store bought cranberry sauce for the turkey, seeded & english mustards for the beef and ham, and all of this is usually followed by a steamed fruit pudding with custard & ice cream. In australia, basically bbq, barbecue/barbeque, barbies are all the same thing, we call the actual device as well as the social event itself a barbecue/bbq/barbeque/barbie, most aussies have no idea of how different what we consider bbq is to what americans call barbecue. From this, you can see that there is no real dish called bbq, its just what we called the social event or cooking of meats on a (usually) flat gas powered cast iron grill that sits out the back of their house. Can't help you there sorry, never been to NZ! Hope that helps.

Hi everyone, I tried making them again and had slightly more success (yet was still a bit disappointed). This time, I mixed the butter with the sugar less than last time and made sure that I used the ingredients exactly as they appeared in the recipe (including using 1 stick of australian butter and cutting off a bit of it so that it was ~ 230 - 240g to equal 2 US sticks). I scooped out the mixture after I had mixed it and put it on parchment paper lined cookies trays, covered them and put them in the refrigerator overnight. One thing that I came away knowing is that scooping them straight after mixing is MUCH easier than trying to scoop them when the mixture has hardened in the fridge overnight. I put them straight into the oven from the fridge, however I changed the temperature in the recipe from 375F (190C) to 330F (~170C). The problem is that even though I had lowered the temperature, when they were "done" (i.e. if I left them in there longer they would brown too much) and had cooled... they were definately not cooked properly. I even cooked them for 18 minutes! They were "fudgy" inside (like the mixture inside was halfway between the raw dough and being cooked) and definately not chewy due to this. I have included some pictures of them both inside and out.. does anyone have any ideas? My only thoughts are that next time I will put the temperature even lower (perhaps 150C = 300F).. maybe my oven is just very hot (before anyone asks, YES I do have an oven thermometer and the oven was at the perfect temperature.. I made sure of it) and it is also an electric fan based oven. This is the cookie mixture just before it went into the oven: This is the cookies just as they came out of the oven: This is the inside of the cookies.. notice that it doesnt appear to be cooked properly and is "fudgy": Thanks again!

Wow, thanks for that reply! At least now I have a better idea of whats going on when making the cookie dough! I am soooo embarrassed that I somehow added only 1 cup of flour... I must have gotten side tracked because I can't think of any other way I could possibly do that having the recipe sitting right in front of me haha! Thanks again everyone for all the suggestions, ill be making the mixture today and baking it tomorrow (with photo's so I can record what the different stages look like for future reference).

Hi everyone, Thanks for all the replies, I will be giving them another go tomorrow, let them sit in the fridge overnight, then bake on tuesday. I'll try and remember to take photos this time! In regards to melting the butter: Yep it specifically states to melt the butter. chefpeon: I believe you 100% which is why I am going to follow your advice tomorrow, however the recipe does say to cream the mixture! (evvvil recipe writers). The funny thing is that while I was trying to get to sleep (and pondering my failed cookies... I had a feeling that I had somehow accidentally put in 1 cup of flour instead of the 2.25 cups! that would DEFINATELY be a major problem, and now that I think about it, that could be why they were so runny couldnt it?.. I'm not positive that I did somehow forget to add the rest, but I had this strong feeling) In regards to bread flour: Yep! The higher protein content combined with the water in the melted butter forms gluten to cause, making them chewey. Thanks again everyone and I'll let you all know how it goes .

Hi everyone, Tonight I tried baking my first batch of chocolate chip cookies, and being a huge AB fan, I tried the recipe for his chewey cookies (me & my family prefer chewy). To help you guys see where I might have gone wrong, here is EXACTLY what I did: 1.) Sifted 2.25 cups bread flour, 1/2 ts table salt (I thought 1 ts kosher salt should be around 1/2 ts table salt because its very fine), 1 ts baking soda together. 2.) The recipe called for 2 sticks of unsalted butter melted, so I melted 2 sticks of unsalted butter... then I realised that Australian butter sticks are 250g whereas american ones are 120g. So what I did was pour it into a measuring cup, stir it very well with a knife to try and distribute the fat & milk solids, then poured half into the mixing bowl (which was quite hot at this time) and put the other half in the fridge for another use. 3.) The butter then called for creaming the butter and sugar and brown sugar. To be honest, I am not sure if I creamed it for the right amount of time (too long or too short), but it seemed light & fluffy and homogenised (I used a medium/low speed to cream it). Then I added the egg and the egg yolk (fridge temperature), the 2TB milk, 1.5ts vanilla extract, all slowly and separately. 4.) I then slowly incorporated the flower on a low speed until it was mixed in. 5.) I poured in the 2 cups of chocolate chips which the mixer had a bit of a hard time with (at this stage, the small mixing bowl was almost entirely full). So the final batter seemed to have unevenly distributed choc chips. 6.) I put it in the fridge for 2 hours to "chill", but the mixture was still pretty soft after this time. 7.) Rubbed some butter on a thin metal cookie sheet, and put a piece of parchment paper on top (i buttered underneath the paper so it would stick). 8.) Scooped the cookies onto the sheet using 2 spoons (one to scoop some out of the bowl and the other to push it off the spoon). Once they were on the sheet, I molded them a touch with my hands to make them resemble round blobs. 9.) I put into a 170degree c oven (338 degrees f) whereas the recipe calls for 375degrees f (190 degree c), but I had read in the comments on the foodnetwork page that this was too high for some people. 10.) The cookies proceeded to spread into each other (even though I only had 6 on each sheet) almost as though they were liquid. I checked after 5 minutes with a knife and they were all totally gooey (no hardness anywhere). After 15 minutes, they were gooey and very dark brown (burnt I guess), without having hardened at all, they were still at a consistency between the original batter and liquid. 11.) To check if they were liquid from just being in the oven (which I doubted) I put them on a rack to cool, but they stayed gooey, so I threw them in the bin. I would appreciate any advice anyone could give me, but I am determined to get these ones to work... I want to use AB's recipe and get the beautiful chewey ones that other people seemed to have gotten to work properly in the reviews on the foodnetwork site. The recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_13617,00.html Thank you in advance for any help!

Hi there, In Sydney, there is one in Bondi (near Bondi Beach), and one in Randwick and one in Leichhart (little italy) http://sydney.citysearch.com.au/E/V/SYDNE/0010/62/03/ Personally, I don't see whats so great about them... sure they have some interesting burgers, but in comparison to a good burger in the US, it pales in comparison. Its the kind of place where you could easily make what they give you (and probably do it better). Having said that, the waiters are great, and it has received good reviews from newspapers. If I were around Bondi, I would go somewhere else... Icebergs ( http://www.idrb.com/index2.htm ) or Sean's Panarama ( http://www.miettas.com/Australia/New_South...S_Panorama.html )would be a much more memorable experience. Hope that helps!

Hi there, How about putting some pastry rings (or empty tuna cans with the top and bottom removed with a can opener) into an oiled pan and spooning the fish paste into the rings, then when the bottom has set, remove the rings and flip to cook the other side? Just a thought.

Hi there! I have been to Hong Kong 7 times over the past 7 years (usually once per year.. sometimes twice), and as a fellow foodie (and a dedicated shopper), it is a truly terrific place. When I last went in August (this year), the sales were insane regularly seeing 90% off already cheap prices. Anyways, back to food. Forget the translator, English is one of the national languages, and most people you will interact with will speak some english (most people in shops, restaurants etc speak english VERY well). Even for street food and hole in the wall family run restaurants/food shops, you can just point or 90% of the time they will have a menu with pictures that you can point at, or a menu with pictures AND english. If you like remember the names of the chinese dishes, but you won't have any problems. For a central location that is right next to the MTR (you use the MTR to get EVERYWHERE in Hong Kong) and a nice hotel, try the Kowloon Hotel (or Holiday Inn Golden mile for more $$ but larger rooms). Also, don't forget to buy an Octopus card as soon as you get the chance so that you can hop on a train whenever you want (just put it in the back of your wallet, and when you pass through the turnstiles, put your wallet down on the scanner). You basically have 2 choices, Hong Kong Island, or Kowloon. I have always preferred Kowloon as a lot of the cheaper shopping is on Kowloon side, but further up towards the New Territories. It really is personal preference, some of my friends prefer staying on the island, but this usually means more expensive hotels (unless you stay way out near the airport, which is a pain in the a$$). For cute touristy paintings and collectables, goto Stanley markets, for non-touristy stuff, don't goto the Stanley markets. If you are going to HK only once, MAYBE go up to the peak just for the view and the trip there (similarly, the trip to stanley via bus is quite nice with all the winding roads and scenic views), but I never go back there as I personally thing its pretty lacking besides the views. If you are interested in *cough* legit DVD's, software, games etc PM me. I have one suggestion that has yet to fail me on my trips to HK. One time I was walking around Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui) and I wandered into a building known as ChungKing Mansion which appears to be an apartment complex (I guess you could call it that) on top of a pretty run-down shopping "centre" (once again, hard to describe it for what it really is) and it is packed with the local Indian population (HK has a decent sized Indian population) and indian fast-food & small indian restaurants. The gem is on the first floor (up one flight of stairs) and on your left (The actual address is: 1/F., 103-104, Chung King Mansion, 40, Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Tel: 27225350, 27237618) and it is called "Swagat Indian Restaurant". Compared to the surroundings, it really stands out (the surroundings are as mentioned earlier, quite run down and sub-standard), but this little restaurant really stands out like the gem it is. The same lovely people have been working there since I first went, and the food has been EXACTLY the same, which I really appreciate. Before I continue, if you dislike "Indian food", please, just please try it. If you don't like it, leave and go grab something from somewhere else, but give it a go, it is not the usual "westernised" British/American/Australian curry house style food where people go and eat it just to be "tough" or "manly" and see how much chilli they can digest, because in Hong Kong, this wouldn't last as Hongkee's (Hong Kongers) don't eat that way. If I may, I would recommend TWO things that you try.. and FORGET all of the previous indian curries you have tried as I guarantee these are so much more subtle and properly spiced/seasoned. Get the Rogan Josh and the Mulligatawny (its not a heavy fatty coconut soup, its light & delicate, but still has body and really hits the spot), which has to be one of the few soups I have ever enjoyed in a restaurant. OK I know what you are thinking... why goto HK & order Indian? because, as I said, there is a decent sized indian population there and I think its always worth seeing how things are done in other parts of the world. IF you do decide to try this restaurant, as you are walking in, DO NOT take a flyer from any of the locals standing around handing them out (they are flyers for the indian restaurants), if you take JUST ONE, they will all surround you and try and give you their brochures/convince you to goto THEIR restaurant... and when there are 10 of them doing it at once, it can get quite scary. However, as long as you don't take the brochures, they won't bother you at all, just walk past them into the centre. Having said that, it is not dangerous in the slightest, or even sleazy/trashy. It is merely one of the many buildings that aren't maintained nearly as well as most western shopping centres (you will notice this a lot in HK when not in the huge shopping centres) and so it looks run down. The people inside are friendly and just trying to make a living by trying to advertise their restaurants. In fact, if you do say yes to one of them to goto their restaurant, they escort you up to it personally. Now onto the cantonese food. I only found this place last time, and I just happened to choose their award winning dish by accident (only found out later), which won the "Best Beef" dish in all of Hong Kong (apparently judged by a panel of culinary wizards). If you decide to take this suggestion, and I urge you to, the dish is called "Crispy Juicy Stewed Beef". (Check it out http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/bob/20...g_beef_1.jhtml). The restaurant is called "Tai Woo Restaurant", and you will find it at 27 Percival Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (for directions, Take the MTR to Causeway Bay, take MTR Exit C, then turn left and walk along Lockhart Road to Percival Street, you will see a big neon sign advertising it as "Tai Woo Seafood Restaurant" or something similar to that). Finally, probably the most famous restaurant is the Fook Lam Moon http://www.fooklammoon-grp.com/chi/index.htm (53-59 Kimberley Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon or 35-45 Johnston Rd in Wan Chai) Restaurant. This is cantonese at its most luxurious (and perhaps most expensive). If however, you are a street food/cheap restaurant fanatic, whilst browsing the markets, there is no shortage of stalls selling grilled fish & squid balls, grilled meat balls, steamed snacks, sugar cane juice etc. The good thing about HK is, there are so many restaurants, its unbelievable that they could all get business, but they do, and so look out for the ones packed with families and locals, avoid the sandwich shops, KFC & mcdonalds (stuff you can get at home) and a chain of restaurants called the Spaghetti House. If you are an absolute coffee fanatic, there are starbucks everywhere now, but quality is questionable. Also avoid steak houses... unless you want to pay US$30 for a steak (it may be big... but $30!?) because all of the prime meat is imported. Personally, I think the hole in the wall noodle shops are the best (usually called congee & noodle shops), you get a big bowl of steaming noodles/congee with whatever you like (I would recommend the squid/fish balls, meatballs, cha siu, salted fish roe etc). From experience, the japanese restaurants are sub-standard, as are the italian, korean and french-asian fusion ones. The vietnamese restaurants are quite good (quite authentic, but since you will have been to VN, I would stick with local food), thai is OK, but I think that since you are Hong Kong, eat what the locals have been eating for so long & go with Cantonese food. If you have any problems finding good local places (which you shouldn't), just ask some of the hotel employees (if you stay at a hotel that is) where they like to eat. Anyways, I have just realised I have almost written an entire essay... sorry about the long windedness of my post, but I love HK & everything about it (the people are the best, there is NO condescendence from shop keepers whatsoever, and the people are just so nice), they love their food, clothes, electronics and most importantly, food (as do I).