Has anybody bought a wok from the wok shop in San Francisco Chinatown the wok lady is hilarious. I buy a thin cast iron wok from her about every 5 to 10 years always been the same price. You just have to be careful with them they break easily.
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That’s where we got ours. So far, so good. Been about 4 years now.
I bought a cover for my wok from her. I had bought the wok in Paris, and couldn’t find a cover anywhere. Not even in repeated trips to Paris. So I ordered one from her. It cost $12. But the postage was $40! I bought it anyway. Well, when it arrived, I had to pay somewhat more than $40 in customs fees, because the value given on the outside of the package was $100. I called the customs authorities to complain. Their answer was, since a value was given on the outside of the package, they were not required to open the package and look for the bill or packing slip. I could, if I wished, file a complaint. But the feel for filing a complaint was $40.
Still and all, I can make very good popcorn!
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That is not really a bad idea.
To put it simply, it depends if you are being limited by the cookware capacity or the stove (heat output) capacity. As long as you have the heat ouput, you can make your cookware larger, say a larger wok. However, once the heat output is maxed out, then the stove can no longer keep up with more food. Now, when you add more and more food to a small stove, the food will cool down and won’t able to heat up. Just imagine you have a tiny stove and a huge stock pot. The water will simply not boil.
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Glad to see your input, Chem.
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It’s the cookware capacity, not the stove heat. The gas burners go 1-9, with a lo and hi on either end. I only ever use hi to get liquid boiling. Beyond that, if I try to saute, sear, or simmer at anything above a 3.5, it just incinerates the food. So there is still plenty of room to go hotter, but the pot is too small. Cooking for 4 is a challenge I guess. Always so much food to make. Particularly with 2 teen boys.
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I see. Good to hear. If that is the case, then using a larger cookware will speed up your cooking process and you not longer need to cook in two batches. I guess the only thing I need to point out is that a larger cookware will weight more and some people are not prepared for that, but I am sure you are aware of this. Good luck.
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Good to see you too.
We used to have a glass cooktop and it drove my mom crazy because the wok really didn’t work on it at all. She settled for one that had a flat bottom, but complained non-stop about it. It was too late to return the stove, so she had to stick with it until the thing broke. The glass top also required a special cleaner and it wasn’t advisable to use the clay pots on it either, so my mom was pretty happy when that stove died and she loudly declared never again!
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When we moved into our house, the first thing we did was to have the glass cooktop taken out and replaced with a gas range.
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This has been my planned gift to myself since we moved into our house 6 yrs ago. Still waiting until I deserve it 
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You deserve it!
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Haha, I agree! When I moved back to the old home (my parents downsized), I renovated the kitchen and also gave myself a gas range. One of the best presents ever!
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I’m just notoriously frugal. I also think it’s not a simple switch out. We looked into it a number of years ago and we might have to put in a gas line. As least, that’s what I recollect was the bigger stumbling block than the cost - which is not insubstantial.
Where we lived before, we would have had to put in a 4 mile long gas line, which would have been ridiculously expensive. When we moved, we looked for a place that had a gas line installed. The Zurich suburb that we chose had gas installed in every building. So it was just a matter of changing the range. It still cost money, but it was reasonable.
Agreed. We were lucky that we had a gas line already coming into the house for the dryer. I have no idea why the previous owners opted for electric stoves over a gas one (we could even see from the basement an old gas pipe that ran up to the kitchen but was no longer used). When I did the reno, they checked and it was just a simple extra piping for the routing to where I wanted the stove. If I wanted a brand new connection, it might have been cost prohibitive for the reno budget.
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