Joyce Chen woks?

[corndogggy]

I'd like to get a wok and was counting on getting a Calphalon contemporary stainless to match everything else, but I ran across some of these Joyce Chen carbon steel woks and made me wonder if I was being stupid, supposedly work as well as possible for that kind of cooking and it's half the price. Anybody know much about them?

[castironchef]

You're looking to pay way too much money for a wok, either with Calphalon or Joyce Chen. Do you think that Asian families buy those? They don't.

Find an Asian market in your area or a restaurant supply that has a line of Asian cookware. Buy a large carbon-steel wok, along with the chan and gong. Altas Metal Spinning is a good brand.

[corndogggy]

Originally Posted by castironchef

Do you think that Asian families buy those? They don't.

I bet most of them don't buy bling-bling All-Clad stuff either but I bet more than half of this board has bought some of it. I just want something that looks good and works even better. The only reason I considered the Calphalon at all is because it would match.

[corndogggy]

Hey, the local restaurant supply has an 18" hammered steel wok for $18 and the ring is like $8 since it's a round bottom wok. Is this way too big for home use? Most I've seen are only 14" and they looked plenty big.

[corndogggy]

I just got the 18" wok from the supply store. It looks like I need a nuclear reactor to power the thing. Well it's not that bad. Only thing I don't like about it is that the outside isn't finished, you have to oil it up just like the inside I guess. At least on the Joyce Chen's I don't think you had to worry about the entire thing rusting up. I can't even figure out what a chan and a gong is, doing a google search with the three terms just yields a bunch of last names of chan and gong who sells woks I guess. I got the burn ring or whatever you call it. At least it'll be authentic in that it's round on the bottom, for whatever that's worth.

[castironchef]

The chan and gong are the "spade" and "spoon" tools for use in woks.

As to the Asian families, even the ones that have All-Clad and expensive French copper cookware for Western cuisine pass on the Calphalon and Joyce Chen woks, as well the other Westernized woks. They simply don't work as well for true Asian cooking.

[corndogggy]

Well this has turned into a big fat mess. After reading this message I had this bright idea to go to the restaurant supply store and get the real thing like I mentioned earlier. Well, I used it, one time, and thought it turned out ok, but the aftermath is pretty bad. The stand that they recommended that I use was only 1.5" or maybe 2" tall, it was a round aluminum ring with holes in it, it was not the wire stand. First thing I noticed after I was done was that there was paint on the aluminum which cracked and crumbled and looks pretty nasty. It was only a $10 part though, so no big deal, but a couple days ago I noticed my stove. I burned the stainless steel around my burner really bad. I didn't notice it before because some of the lighting in my kitchen is messed up. That ring got that big wok too close to the burner then trapped the heat so the whole area is just scorched, I'm not talking just a little bit either. I don't know if I can scrub it out or not. If I try stir frying again, it will be on a Joyce Chen wok, I should have just went with my instincts from the beginning instead of second guessing, now I'm paying for it.

[castironchef]

Sounds like a burner/cooktop problem and not a wok problem.