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A few random thoughts. Asko makes an induction cooktop with a gas wok burner. I would have preferred that to my all gas one had it been available when I was remodelling. I don't want to give up counter space to a steam oven so a built in one would be fine but was out of my budget. I like having on decent sized sink instead of two small ones but if you have room for two large ones... I have cupboards hidden away under the island for those things that seldom never get used but I don't want to get rid of. One of my favourite things is a narrow cupboard next to the oven and cooktop with a basket that pulls out for keeping salt, pepper, oils, etc. handy for cooking. One mistake was putting three large cupboards above one of the counters when it should have been 4 narrower ones. Turns out the large doors get in the way when they are open and it is a pain to squeeze by the island or keep closing and reopening them when putting dishes away.

One of my favourite snacky things is 牙签牛肉 (yá qiān niú ròu), literally 'toothpick beef'. Beef tenderloin is thinly sliced and cut into roughly 3 x 5 cm / 1¼ x 2 inch pieces. These are marinated overnight in soy sauce , Shaoxing wine, with flaked chilli, cumin powder, Sichuan peppercorns and crushed garlic. Next day, the pieces of meat are threaded onto pre-soaked toothpicks and briefly fried in a wok. The beef cooks almost instantly. After draining the beef, they are tossed in more chilli (if required) and sesame seeds, then served. This originated in Sichuan but is now available all over. Some supermarkets sell them ready made, but most people make them from scratch. It's important not to overcook them, something no one has apparently told he supermarkets. Great for snacking or finger food at a buffet - or beer food.

I got to fool around the other day at Frontier Energy Food Service Technology Center and they had some SERIOUS induction woks!

After breakfast was another transit day. Small boat to the dock on the mainland, then 1.5 hour car ride to the city of Manado. There isn't much touristy stuff in Manado, so the original plan was to use it as a base to explore the Minahasa highlands around the city and maybe hit a market or two. In addition to the standard fruit I usually look for, I was also looking to bring home some kencur - Indonesian sand ginger. It's used in lots of Indonesian dishes, but is impossible to find in the US unless you want dried which is a totally different thing. I had already applied for and received permission to bring it in from the USDA, just as long as there is no dirt or pests attached to it. I had also wanted to find an Indonesian mortar/pestle - which looks more like a flat plate than the Thai style. When we arrived at the hotel, our room wasn't ready yet, so we hung out in the lobby a bit and then went to the hotel restaurant for lunch. Interestingly, I'd say at least 95% of the hotel occupants that I saw over our 4 days there were domestic Indonesian travelers, and most of the hotel staff spoke no English at all, which is pretty uncommon. Really glad I brushed up on my Bahasa!!! The hotel has the only Italian restaurant in the city but they also have some local Indonesian dishes. I took a photo of the menu of the local section: Ikan kuah asam - a fish soup with big chunks of some kind of white fish in a clear sour broth. The fish was dry (that's the style of cooking fish here - you'll see why later) but the soup had a nice sour flavor. Served with rice: Cakalang bakar dabu-dabu - grilled skipjack tuna with sambal dabu-dabu. Dabu-dabu (which means chopped) is local to this area, although it has spread all over Indonesia. As far as I know, it is unique among Indonesian sambals as it is a raw sambal - most sambal are ground and then fried to bring out the flavor. This one is a raw combination of green and red tomato (both underripe and sour), shallots and chillies. Hot oil is then poured over the sambal to help bring out some flavor, but it is still essentially raw. And holy crap is it hot!!! This was one of the hottest things I've had in my life. The tuna was also very dry, but lubricated by the sambal as well as my excessive salivation and mucus coming out of my nose. It turns out that the local Minahasa people pride themselves on the fact that the locally grown chillies are hotter than any other in Indonesia! They say that because theirs is the spiciest, their food is the best. After checking into our room and unpacking a bit, we took a quick walk around because I needed to find an ATM and I wanted to get more water for the room. Quite a few people who were just hanging around on the street were eyeing us like pieces of meat - I don't know if they're just not used to seeing white people or anything else but it did make us a bit uneasy - which could have entirely been in our heads. But we decided to have dinner in the hotel as I still wasn't feeling 100% and all of the places I was looking at going to were a taxi ride to a different neighborhood and we had to wake up early to meet our driver for our highland trip. But first, a few street shots: Fresh squeezed lime juice Ayam woku (chicken in woku curry) - this was awesome. Similar to the ikan woku (fish woku) that we had on the island, woku curry is a specialty of the Minahasa people of the region. It has a pretty standard bumbu (spice paste) of galangal, shallots, chillies, etc. but also uses a bunch of leafy herbs which are finely sliced - turmeric leaves, green onion, pandan leaves and basil. Served with: Rice and krupuk udang (shrimp chips) Mee goreng - this version used a lot of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and they must have had a really hot wok because there was a great char aroma to it.

@Shelby how did those ' Poachers ' wok out compared to the silicone ' cups ' are the P's easy to clean ? any egg get stuck to them ? outstanding lookin food BTW

Sorry, Woks of Life, but 捞面 does not translate as you have it. 捞 translates as 'dredged' or 'fished out'. 面 translates as many things but here 'wheat noodles'. Nothing to do with stirring or any other wok technique. The noodles are briefly cooked in a pan of water from which they are dredged or fished out before being incorporated in with the other ingredients in the wok.

Fabulous meals to catch up drooling about! @Kim ShookThat char siu is spot on! WE have not been starving, but it's been a busy place, everything in disarray as our 2-story cedar house was being sanded and stained. Nearly done after 2 weeks, sometimes stalled by extreme temperatures then major thunderstorms. I have bee planting, planting, planting flowers, but nothing can be moved into place, along with all the statues, etc until all the painting is done. Some meals the last while: Had the 8 and 11 year old granddaughters up one day. Good grief! They DO love perogies and steak. They each devoured 12 perogies and steak Got some fresh asparagus from a Hutterite colony not far from us. Blanched them, sauteed in butter, then topped with toasted nuts, seeds etc: Went well with Shake and Bake BBQ chicken legs Too hot to BBQ, possible? With good A/C in the house, cooked up low and slow, some pork ribs. Corn looked too ripe but was actually really tender and sweet. Love one wok meals when I am busy. Local supermarket had lovely bitter melon - a favourite for hubby and me. Black bean garlic beef & bitter melon Pickerel and vegetables stir-fry: Daughter-in-law was away on a Outdoor Women Weekend where she was going archery, fire arms, and butchering! She brought back lovely lamb and shared some shank meat with us. I did a curry in the IP: Last night: Hamburger steak with onion, mushroom, green peppercorn gravy. Comfort food with mashed taters!

I too love head on shrimp and prawns and agree with @KennethTthat deep frying is best. I buy them live and purged so they go straight into a hot wok of oil (they are killed instantly) and cook in seconds. I then drain and dress them with mix of salt and toasted then ground Sichuan peppercorns. Smaller examples can be eaten shell on, but no matter what size they are biting into the head is orgasmic.

Poke? Here's one recipe for skipjack poke. If you make poke for a party and have leftovers, you can make wok-fried poke the next day. Here's Sheldon Simeon's wok-fried poke recipe and here's a Sam Choy video: Seared tuna loin steaks are always good. I've been using the salt/pepper/crushed coriander seed coating that I got from a recipe in Taste & Technique. Once seared, you can serve as a steak with any sort of salsa/relish type thing that appeals to you. Or slice up the seared steaks and use on a salad or stuff into tacos. Smaller pieces are good candidates for making tuna confit. Here's an LA Times recipe Conserved Tuna that's similar to the one that I use from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook and use it to make this Pasta with Preserved Tuna. I like the seasonings in that Zuni tuna recipe but sometimes use the Chef Steps sous vide method instead of the stovetop.

My YouTube feed has become saturated with videos of Indonesian people making popular Indonesian food. Go figure. One of the dishes that has popped up several times is this one - a grilled chicken dish that seems to be common on the island of Lombok, right next to Bali. At this time, I've never been to Lombok, nor have I had this dish anywhere in Indonesia but it just looked so good I couldn't resist watching a bunch of the videos and then coming up with this recipe which is like an amalgamation of them. Most of the time, it's for grilling a whole, spatch-cocked chicken, but it's just two of us so I adapted it to make 4 chicken thighs. Ideally cooked on a wood burning grill, I have to make do in my apartment with a cast iron grill pan. I imagine it would also be really good on chicken wings and also fish Marinade: 1 t powdered dried turmeric 1t salt about 2 ounces of water Bumbu (spice paste): 2-3 fresh long hot red chillies (like Prik chee faa in Thailand) 2 fresh/frozen Thai chillies 2-3 fresh Cayenne or other long, red, skinny chilli. I can't get that here, so I used a couple of dried ones, soaked until soft 4 small shallots 4 cloves garlic 1 inch fresh/frozen kencur - substitute the same amount of galangal if kencur is unavailable 2 candlenuts 2t Indonesian or Malaysian shrimp paste (terasi or belacan respectively), toasted then crumbled 1t salt 2oz oil for frying 8oz coconut milk 2t palm sugar 1/2-1t white sugar 1/2 lime 1. In a small blender or mortar grind the bumbu into a fine paste 2. In a wok or deep pan, heat the fry oil until shimmering then add the bumbu paste and fry, stirring constantly, until the oil starts to separates back out of the paste. 3. Add the coconut milk and stir to combine and bring to a boil. Add the palm sugar and white sugar and simmer and stir constantly until much thicker and you start to see oil separating out of the liquid. Set aside. This is now the sambal used for grilling and dipping later. 4. Preheat your grill to medium heat and mix the marinade ingredients in a small dish 5. Once the grill is hot, brush the marinade on both sides of the chicken and place on the grill, skin side down. 6. Flip after a few minutes and cook on both sides until about halfway cooked through. 7. Using a brush, brush the sambal on the chicken then flip, and brush more on the other side. Continue brushing/flipping until the chicken is cooked through. 8. Squeeze the lime juice into the remaining sambal (sauce) and serve on the side.

Hi @Kim Shook: Apologies for late to reply. It's actually spring here and I've been busy playing in the dirt! Not sure what is traditional chow mein, but our Soo's #12A Cantonese Chow Mein has always been a bed of noodles topped with mixed veg and proteins with a light "gravy" of chicken stock and slurry. We used the packages of dry egg noodles, toss into boiling water until softened, cold rinse, drain and keep in the fridge. With each order, we'd toss them into a hot wok with hot oil. We'd let them get a little bit of a crisp on the outside, then plate. Then we'd cook the topping. The sauce can soften the centre of the bed of noodles, but they outer part stays dry, unless you want it softened. I've also made it so it's like a thick pancake. The outside is crispy but the inside is soft. My grands like just the "stir-fried" noodles, with crispy bits but still soft. Lots of sesame oil! Lo Mein is noodles with all ingredients tossed together and a bit of sauce, but not gooey or runny. We don't like those. LOL! I usually use flat noodles for soup, or flat rice sticks for pad thai. I can get "steamed noodles" in the supermarket. They are loose rather than in cakes. Still have to dunk them into boiling water before the wok. But I am expecting @liuzhou to chime in with what he eats IN China.

Interestingly, in my inbox today, from Woks of Life... LO MEIN NOODLES & HOW TO COOK THEM

Yesterday's lunch was Crispy Black Bean Butterfish from Cook Real Hawai'i I've always used fermented black beans in a stir fry prep where everything comes together in the wok so this method of making a the sauce separately, frying the fish and blanching the baby bok choy was interesting. I used rockfish instead of the butterfish (black cod) specified in the recipe so it was a bit less luxurious but still good.

Those of you who've followed this blog know that I love visiting Charlie's store and perusing their kitchen gear. There's usually, not always, something for me to buy. There's always something to tempt me, even when we're on the return trip and nearly home. This time, I had a specific item in mind. We all know about buyer's remorse. How many of us have experienced giver's remorse? I gave a (large) carload of stuff, mostly cooking gear, to my greatniece last fall as she was setting up her first apartment. Yes, she needed (or wanted) the stuff! I could spare it! I was doing us both a favor, and passing forward the blessings and help that my parents and their friends had done for me when I was setting up house for the first time. Well. I'm a bit sorry I gave her my mother's cake pans. Never needed them before now. I have springform pans. They're all at home. My mother's pans had push-up bottoms, like this set (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). What I like about them is their straight sides, perfect for baking sweet rolls. Are they better than the springform pans? Not necessarily, but those pans are at home. I am NOT asking for them back. We did each other favors, and her aunt is a wonderful baker. She'll probably get far more use out of them than I would at this point. Still, I'd like to have some for the trailer. I checked out the antique and junk stores. My favorite of those shops closed over the winter! 😕 Nobody else knew what I was talking about. Off I went to Charlie's. I didn't bother taking photos of their hilarious tea towels, but you can see them here for a good laugh. I fondled some charming dipping bowls. I gave mine to my great-niece too. Those I don't want back, but it's fun to look. I admired a huge strainer, perfect for fishing dumplings or pot-stickers out of a wok. Couldn't quite justify buying it, although -- in retrospect -- maybe it would be better for removing fried shrimp than my current setup. Hmm. It isn't too late to go back! Kim didn't know what I was talking about on the cake pans, and none of what they had would work. I wonder why cake pans are made without removable bottoms, whether of the type I'm looking for or the springform variety? Leak prevention, I suppose. However, I can all too easily imagine the bottom sticking to the baked goods and refusing to release. What a mess that would be! I did indulge my desire for a new can opener. I haven't really made friends with our side-lid opener that doesn't leave sharp edges but does often make a mess when the lid jerks off too abruptly. Kim commented that this type was her favorite, and I noted that I found our side-cutter type difficult. "I couldn't make mine work at all!" she exclaimed.

Another tuna taco. This time, I used planned-over Kimchi Poke from Cook Real Hawai'i (as seen in yesterday's breakfast) to make the Wok-Fried Poke from the same book. Sheldon says this was a way to use up leftovers after a party the night before until Sam Choy elevated it into a speciality at his restaurants. It's a nice preparation, only seared in a hot, hot pan for less than half a minute so each cube is cooked on the outside but still raw in the middle. My version is not elevated at all, just stuffed into a tortilla with a kimchi slaw made with red cabbage and radish. Avocado might have elevated it but I was out!

Resources for brands and ingredients from both Andrea Nguyen and Momofuku are very useful as suggested above, but availability may vary according to where you live and what Asian groceries exist near you. Beyond that, many products may be a matter of personal preference. I don't find any one brand to be excellent across the board. Just a few of my favorites: Peanut oil: Love Lion and Globe. Red Boat fish sauce. Yes it's pricy but I don't use a lot of it. Huy Fong chili garlic sauce. The most used basic Asian hot sauce in our house. I prefer it to Sriracha, generally. Grandma chili crisp, the real brand name escapes me just now. Blank Slate Sichuan chili oil. I order it from Mama Market Wok Mei all natural oyster sauce. I like the taste. Don't get too excited it does say "Oyster flavored." Mala Market brand Chinese Sesame Paste SOY sauce: Although I really don't cook Japanese food much, my two current favorites soy sauces are: Haku Black Garlic Shoyu. This brand makes several others that I've not tried Smoked Shoyu. I get it from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Soy-Sauce-Japanese-Additives-【CHAGANJU】/dp/B08VGBWQJW/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=11CUS1WL6973J&keywords=smoked+shoyu&qid=1680725024&sprefix=smoked+shoyu%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-3-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyVVdRNk5SRkdPUjM2JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDAwNTM0M1VXQUtKWjNOM0hFJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2Nzg2NDgxVzFGMlE3OE9YQ0kwJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== Peanut sauce: Jade brand, easily available in big supermarkets. I flinch every time a Chinese recipe calls for peanut butter. This Jade stuff is really useful, and it pack a punch. I use it for chicken stir-fry as an additional ingredient for a sauce. Dry red chiles: I use a lot of Chiles de Arbol for various things. I also like the Mala Market Facing Heaven Chilis. The aren't that hot, but the have a very nice flavor. Dried black tree fungus: I prefer the smaller more delicate cloud ears, but they aren't often available in the Chinatown markets that I depend on. So, I splurge on the ones from Mala Market. Yeah, Mala Market is expensive. They also have an extensive selection of Sichuan peppercorns. Thee are a few off the top of my head. I'm not very adventurous; once I find a product I like I tend to stick with it.

Looks great but I'm confused - you have rice on the plate - so how do you not have toasted rice powder? Just dry fry some raw rice in a wok until toasted then grind in a spice grinder or mortar.

Thanks for reviving this topic! I think I missed it the first time around. I find that my taste in wooden spoons has changed. Until recently I used unfinished wooden spoons for, say, mixing dough. I had a beautiful one almost as long as my forearm that I think was made of pine. I say "had" because I recently donated it to a garage sale. I've found that my glossy bamboo spoons, that came with a wok set, work much better and aren't as sticky. I've never tried them in the dishwasher, but it's nice to know that they'll survive it.

Quick Curry Beef from the “The Woks of Life” - flank steak marinated in oyster sauce, light soy sauce, oil, water, cornstarch and baking soda. Afterwards stir fried with red and green bell peppers and onions. Sauce made from chicken stock, curry powder, turmeric, sugar and cornstarch.

Clean-out-the-fridge fried rice, with arroz verde, asparagus, bacon, escabeche sauce, ginger, garlic, jalapeno, half a white onion, fish sauce, egg, and cilantro. Should’ve let the rice dry out a bit on the counter before it hit the wok. But hey, tasted good and I cleared plenty of space in the fridge.

We have 18 stovetop pots and pans that have met our needs for many years. All-Clad stainless-lined aluminum sauté pan – large: Probably our most-used piece of cookware because I love to bang pans around while cooking and it does a bang-up job of browning, searing, and quickly reducing sauces. Falk stainless-lined copper saucieres (large, medium, small): I use these frequently but Mrs. C finds them too heavy. Great do-anything pans for sautéing and searing to stews, braises, delicate sauces, and caramelizing sugar. The small one melts chocolate beautifully without a double boiler. Thin cast iron woks (medium, large): The medium one gets lots of use and has built up a remarkably durable non-stick patina. Best 20 bucks I ever spent on cookware, and still available from the Wok Shop. The large wok gets used less often so the patina is not quite as remarkable. All-Clad saucepans (large, small): Mostly used to steam rice, but also handy for soups, sauces, and deep-frying. Staub Dutch oven: Glad to have it, even though we don’t use it very often. All-clad stockpot with steamer inserts – very large: Mrs. C uses this to make chicken stock and steam vegetables. Non-stick frying pans (small, medium, large): Useful for cooking fish and eggs. These get replaced every once in a while. Cast iron flat pan: Used to roast spices, garlic, and dried chiles. Cast iron skillets (large, small): Large one is for searing meat. Small one is of unknown providence and rarely used but it is an heirloom from Mrs. C’s family, so . . . Non-stick saucepans (large, small): Mostly used to boil water for pasta or vegetables. If these went away I would not be sad. Does a kettle count by official rules?

A large component of this curry is the curry powder. You can use a store bought curry powder, but unless it's specifically a Nyonya style one (I can't find a good one in NYC, but maybe those in Asia can), the final curry can come out quite differently. It's hard to make a small batch of curry powder from scratch due to the scaling - the batch I make is just under one kg total, which I then split into 85g packages which are put in zip lock bags with the air removed as much as possible and then frozen. The rempah (spice paste) isn't very complicated so I don't make it in large batches. This recipe is for 4 chicken thighs, a little less than 1.5 pounds. Curry powder: 420g coriander seed 150g cumin seed 100g anise seed 150g whole dried chilli (dried prik chee faa or other medium spicy chilli), snipped into pieces, seeds removed 50g turmeric powder 50g white peppercorn 26g true cinnamon 14 pieces whole clove 1 whole nutmeg 18 cardamom pods 1 whole star anise 25g poppy seed Put all of the spices on a baking sheet, except the poppy seeds, and bake at 200-250F for about 45 minutes or until completely heated through and fragrant. Add all the spices to a heavy duty blender (in batches if needed) and blend on high speed until completely powdered (or preferably a large spice mill). Spread on a baking sheet and allow to cool completely. Portion into 85g packets, seal and freeze the extra. ============== 4 skin on, bone in chicken thighs 8.5 ounces coconut milk 1/3-1/2 cup oil (rice bran oil or other neutral oil) - you need a lot more oil than expected to fry the rempah properly 55 g curry powder 1 stem curry leaves, destemmed 4 kaffir lime leaves chicken seasoning: salt msg sugar 20-30g curry powder rempah: 120g shallot (preferably the Asian shallot), finely chopped 25g ginger, peeled and sliced thinly 5 cloves garlic 1t Malaysian belacan (shrimp paste) - different from Thai shrimp paste 1. Season the chicken thighs on both sides with a sprinkle of salt, msg and sugar and then the curry powder and let sit at least 30 minutes to marinate. 2. Pound the shallot in a mortar until broken down a bit, then add ginger and pound more, then add garlic and pound until it is a rough paste. Break the belacan into small pieces and then pound into the paste 3. Heat the oil in a saucepan or small wok big enough to hold the chicken over medium heat and fry the rempah until soft and fragrant 4. Add the curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves and fry until fragrant 5. Add about 1/4 of the coconut milk and whisk to combine, then whisk in the curry powder. If it gets too dry and paste-like, add a bit more coconut milk. Fry until some of the red oil starts to separate out of the liquid. 6. Add the rest of the coconut milk reserving a tablespoon or two, plus about 1/2t salt, 1/4t msg and 1t sugar, and whisk to combine. 7. Bring to a low boil (if not already there) and add the chicken thighs, skin side down. Add a little bit of water if necessary to cover the chicken then cover the pot and cook over low heat (to maintain the low boil) for about 8 minutes. 8. Remove the cover and turn the chicken (scraping the bottom of the pan for any spices that may have stuck) and continue to cook uncovered until the chicken is cooked through. The curry should thicken considerably. 9. Once cooked, remove the chicken and set aside. Remove as much of the layer of oil that has accumulated on top of the curry as possible, then add the reserved coconut milk and taste for seasoning. 10. Serve with jasmine rice

My cookware addiction, like all of my consumptive addictions, is mercifully self-limiting. Once I (thoroughly) cover the bases, I don't feel a strong pull to buy more. If a new pot or pan isn't going to do much for me functionally, I don't find it all that desirable. But if I've got a particular need for a pan, or if there's an obvious gap in my batterie, I feel the urge. Here's a quick outline of what I have with some quick commentary. From All Clad I have 3 D3 saucepans (or pots, as normal people call them) with lids in 1.5qt, 3qt, and 4qt sizes. That's a pretty good range, though I kind of want a 2 or 2.5qt saucier to fill in the gap between the 1.5 and 3qt pans. I also have two D3 skillets, 8 and 12 inch. These get used less frequently than they used to, as I tend to use my nonstick and carbon steel skillets more often for some reason. The D3 skillets are slightly lighter weight than I prefer, but they're still great performers. Moving away from the D3, I have the D7 12" skillet. It is big, bad, and in charge. Huge and heavy and awesome. It's my stainless alternative to cast iron or carbon steel for searing. The stainlessness makes it great for making acidic pan sauces, which are my preference. I'd like to have a 10" Copper Core saute pan to do some shallow frying in. My last 2 All Clad pans are stock pots. The first was featured above: a Copper Core 8qt stock pot. It's more of a soup and pasta pot than a stock pot, given its small size. But it's great for soups. Nice big flat bottom also sears well and the high walls mostly contains the spatter. In Stock Pot country, I also have a Mystery Line All Clad stock pot with steamer inserts that I was gifted for my wedding many years ago. I think it's 12 qts. Unfortunately, it's not induction compatible. I basically only use this to make larger quantities of stock on the stovetop or in the oven. But I mostly use pressure cookers for stock. So yeah, it's not super useful. Maybe if I get into making tamales, or if I want to fry a turkey on my wok burner. Or something. My only other piece of stainless cookware also mostly gets used for stock making. It's a cheap Presto 8-qt pressure cooker with a disc bottom that works pretty okay. I wish I had a fancier pressure cooker, but I bought this when I was a grad student just getting into cooking in a serious way. It was a bargain, and I'm glad I have it. The base works very well as a standalone pot, with the only drawback being the handles that aren't oven-safe. I'd happily swap it out for a Kuhn Rikon or a Fissler though. Who wouldn't? And I have an Instant Pot too, so... That covers my stainless cookware. Before I go into the other metals, I'd like to give a shout out to my 3 Alonon copper nouveau nonstick skillets (8, 10, and 12 inch). Unlike most nonstick pans, which are thin and tend to overheat locally, these have a thick layer on the bottom of aluminum, copper, and stainless (at least I think that's what they are). It's not a lot of copper, but it's nice. The sides are very curved/sloped, which I don't prefer, but the shape works well for tossing food. They're heavy nonstick pans that heat evenly and don't lose all their heat when you throw a lot of food into the pan. Unfortunately, Anolon stopped making them. It's almost time to replace them. Sad times. Nonstick pans are the only disposable pans in my kitchen. Everything else should last a lifetime. For cast iron, I have a 12" Lodge skillet I got as a broke undergrad. Maybe the best $20 on kitchen equipment I've ever spent. I also have 8 and 10 inch vintage skillets that I inherited from my grandmothers. That's pretty cool. They mostly get used for cornbread duty. I also have a 4.5qt Lodge dutch oven that I use mostly for deep frying on induction. It's also a preferred vessel for certain "no knead" bread recipes, but I don't bake ever. Ever. Finally, I have an enamel coated Tramontina 8 qt dutch oven that was recommended by Cook's Illustrated in like 2008. That's what I use for braises, pot roasts, and heavy searing. It's great, and I think I got it for like $50 at Walmart 15 years ago. A great purchase. My parents have all kinds of Le Creuset pieces, and this compares favorably. In carbon steel, I have a full set of the original Darto skillets as well as their No. 34 paella. I think the No. 34 paella is my favorite pan overall in the kitchen. It's just a huge thick slab of black steel. Incredible searing power. Great for shallow frying, large format fajitas, or nachos. It almost lives on my stovetop. The other Dartos are mostly used for searing or sautéing. I wish I had a No 27 paella to roast things in my Breville Smart Oven. Maybe some of the other smaller paella things. All my carbon steel is from Darto except for a 36cm wok that I got from Korin. I've used it twice for actual wokking. It's great, but I never use my wok burner. That's more of a personal failing than a problem with the cookware. I mostly use it for deep frying. Go outside to fry my fish and chips over a 100K BTU burner. You use less oil in a wok and don't have to worry about bubble-over. Basically an outdoor deep fryer, as far as I'm concerned. The wok itself performs great though and the handle doesn't get hot even though it's metal too (even over my monster wok burner). I would buy this wok again and again, but I'd buy it in this slightly smaller 33cm size. The final three pieces of cookware I'll list are the ceramic donabes I purchased from Toiro Kitchen. I have one that is designed to make rice, and that's my official rice-maker. I also have a large one designed for smoking that was very expensive and is very underused. I feel bad about that, because it was my most expensive piece of cookware and I've used it less than 10 times. I am going to work on changing that though. Even less used is a tagine style donabe. I've used it to bake bread and to steam roast potatoes. Been meaning to make some actual tagines, but that never seems to happen. I think the base of it might work well as a comal though. So maybe it's actually a 2-in-1 device that I never use! At least it's not a unitasker! All told, I think that's 24 pieces. Math was never my strong suit.

Hey. I used ChatGPT A.I. for this question and it seemed to give a good answer: Me: how do I cook dried preserved Chinese duck legs? ChatGPT: Dried preserved Chinese duck legs, also known as "shā yā zhǎng" in Mandarin, are a popular ingredient in Chinese cuisine that can be used to make a flavorful and savory dish. Here's a simple recipe to get you started: Ingredients: 2 dried preserved Chinese duck legs 2 cups of water 1 piece of ginger, sliced 4 cloves of garlic, sliced 2 green onions, sliced 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine 1 tablespoon of sugar 2 tablespoons of oil 2 cups of boiling water Instructions: Soak the dried preserved duck legs in cold water for at least 2 hours to rehydrate them. In a large saucepan or wok, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the ginger, garlic, and green onions and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the duck legs to the pan and stir-fry for a few minutes until they are browned on both sides. Add the light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, and sugar to the pan and stir to combine. Pour 2 cups of boiling water into the pan and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and simmer the duck legs for 1 hour or until they are tender and the sauce has thickened. Serve the duck legs with steamed rice and vegetables. This recipe should result in tender and flavorful duck legs that are infused with the rich and savory flavors of ginger, garlic, and soy sauce. Enjoy!

Cue The Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again" Dumplings (filled with beef mince, Speck and calf's liver) Prawn roe brought back from Hong Kong Froze the roe in small portions. They only need a quick toss in a hot wok/pan to release the intense prawny taste. Egg-tomato soup and steamed chard (Turkish market probably sources green house chard) And a Belgian beer Are we in love or just friends? When will I see you again, Hong Kong and Macau?