Reddit Reddit reviews The Breath of a Wok: Breath of a Wok

We found 7 Reddit comments about The Breath of a Wok: Breath of a Wok. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Cookbooks, Food & Wine
Books
Regional & International Cooking & Wine
Asian Cooking, Food & Wine
Chinese Cooking, Food & Wine
The Breath of a Wok: Breath of a Wok
Used Book in Good Condition
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7 Reddit comments about The Breath of a Wok: Breath of a Wok:

u/captainblackout · 22 pointsr/Cooking

From a Chinese perspective, I think that Fuchsia Dunlop's books are very much on point as far as Sichuan cooking is concerned.

Eileen Yin Fei Yo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking is an excellent generalist work, with a slightly Cantonese bent.

Grace Young's Breath of a Wok is another excellent generalist cookbook.

u/morsmordre · 7 pointsr/BuyItForLife

Hand-hammered carbon steel woks.

Trust me, this is what you want. And as far as I know, this eBay seller is the only way to get them without making a trip to Shanghai.

You can read the other posts for why thin, carbon steel woks are the best.

Why a hammered wok though? The hundreds of dents provide grip, which is extremely useful in wok cooking. Often, after the first ingredient (usually meat) is cooked, it is temporarily moved out of the intensely-hot center of the wok to the sides while one or more other ingredients (usually vegetables) are cooked. After the vegetables (or whatever) are just about done, the meat (or whatever) waiting on the walls of the wok is returned to the center with the other stuff. Smooth, machine-made woks suck for this; textured, hammered woks destroy.

Also they're sexy as fuck.

The woks sold by Taost on eBay are hand-hammered by a pair of old Chinese dudes in Shanghai. As far as I know, these two dudes (the Cen brothers) are the only people in the world who still do this by hand, and Taost is the only one sourcing their woks outside of Asia. If you can know someone in China or wouldn't mind visiting, you can get 'em for a lot cheaper at their house/workshop located at 214 Baoyuan Lu, Shanghai. You know you're close when you can hear the extreme hammering. I visited about a year and a half ago; they work in their side yard banging circular sheets of carbon steel with hammers for hours until they take the proper shape.

Here's a neat book with of one of the Cen brothers' woks on the cover.

Happy wok'ing!

Edit: Also, if you want a different sized wok, I know the Cen brothers make them. You could try asking Taost, or even better buy one from them directly.

Edit #2: Dang! Just clicked your links, I see the second one is for a hand-hammered carbon steel wok. It doesn't look like Cen brothers, either! The hammer marks are too big. Well, I guess there are at least two producers of hand-hammered woks in this world--take your pick!

u/retailguypdx · 4 pointsr/Chefit

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

u/ideologic · 3 pointsr/food

Breath of a Wok by Grace Campbell. You will learn everything you ever needed to know about the wok, as well as the best ways to cook with it. She recommends a 14" carbon steel flat bottomed wok for the Western kitchen. Wok Hay Baby!

u/TheFinn · 2 pointsr/Cooking

THIS. You are going to want to get a burner that puts out crazy heat. I really like THIS model. 64,000BTU is on the low end for wok burners (pro burners are 120K plus) but is more than serviceable for a home cook. If you are unwilling or unable to get a high output gas burner you would be best served by listening to tsdguy and getting a nice heavy saute pan as trying to use a wok on a home stove is going to be a disappointment.

I also highly highly suggest you pick up Breath of Wok it has been invaluable for my wok cookery.

u/jrd22566 · 2 pointsr/China

Wok pr0n, featuring a hand hammered wok from Shanghai on the cover.

While I'd be happy to follow along and maybe provide photos of woks in use in Shanghai, I'm no expert either and I don't consistently have the time or posses the temperament to be a good mod.

u/gegtik · 1 pointr/Cooking

you should consider picking up Grace Young's two wok cookbooks, Breath of a wok and Stir frying to the sky's edge. I like her earlier book better but they are both great.