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I think the post is great, but he made an assumption that wasn't stated and might cause all of us to disagree. He picked a cuisine without saying which one. A
by eumenides1 14y ago
I think the post is great, but he made an assumption that wasn't stated and might cause all of us to disagree.
He picked a cuisine without saying which one.
A MVK will have different sets of equipment depending on the cuisine you choose. A Chinese kitchen will have a wok and a rice cooker, while a French kitchen will have things that you need to make bread.
The most important thing is to choose a cuisine and stick to it! There is a lot of learn from one cuisine before you move to another.
In my experience (being Chinese and born in North America), my kitchen holds a lot of stuff that i like (black bean sauce and grainy mustard) that just don't work together, but i wouldn't want to live without. (Also wok spatula and tongs if you are looking for an equipment example)
- tptacek 14y agoAmerican kitchens should probably skip the wok even if they're making Chinese food, because woks are designed for a specific kind of cooktop and are outperformed by large sautee pans otherwise.
- mechanical_fish 14y agoI have been told this, and therefore never owned a wok, but I'm now thinking of getting a wok anyway because Kenji (aka "J. Kenji Lopez-Alt" of SeriousEats.com) disagrees, and "follow Kenji around like a zombie and taste what he tastes" is a motto that is serving me well in life so far. Here's Kenji's non-scientific rant on the subject: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/wok-skills-101-stir-frying-basics.html?ref=search http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/wok-skills-101-stir-fryin... Here's the better-equipped-with-charty-graphy-goodness version: http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/06/the-food-lab-for-the-best-stir-fry-fire-up-the-grill.html?ref=search http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/06/the-food-lab-for-the-best...
- tptacek 14y agoI am totally getting that Weber grill/wok setup.
- eumenides1 14y agoMaybe, but I just don't feel right using a pan to make Chinese vegetables. I totally understand their conclusions, but it bothers a part of my brain. FYI, I'm no master of the wok. Just a fool who plays with the master's tools One of the really nice things about a wok is that liquids drain to the middle, and the centre is super hot! You really don't get that on a saute pan. Also, when you toss something with a wok spatula, everything is generally gathered in the middle. Maybe I just need to move 2 to 3 times faster in a saute pan. There is also something Cantonese cooking called wok hei (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok#Wok_hei). It's pretty elusive, but some dishes IMO live and die by it. I know when dishes are right when a waiter passes a plate across my face and for a brief moment, it felt like a heating element just rush past.