In 2008 when we first moved to the Island, I wanted to purchase a good Wok.

Over the previous years we had a variety of metal pots that were identified as Woks.  Even had a flat bottomed one that you could put on on the stove but it had a teflon coating.

This was in a period when we were cooking lots of stir fry meals (kids having to rush off to Soccer games or practice) But the woks never approached those I saw when I went to the local Chinese restaurant for pick-up dinners.    I abandoned all of these when we moved out west thinking we would get a proper one.

When we were selecting the appliances for our house, we picked a gas stove that had a reversible grill that would hold a round Wok.

In the first weeks when we still settling in out here in CV we went to visit Art in Vancouver.  We had arranged to meet with Yi-Hong for lunch.  I asked her where could I buy an authentic Chinese Wok.  She gave us directions to a store in a part of Vancouver (off Hastings) that tourists never visit.  I bought a steel Wok with a wooden handle and asked the old guy how to treat it. He gave me the basics but said it will take time.

You cook and add oil and heat it, clean without abrasive and eventually it will grow a black coating better than any Teflon.  I despaired some times because the coating seemed to wash away but eventually I ended up with the kind of Wok that you see in restaurants.  Black as midnight on the inside.

One of the issues with a young wok is that the uncured steel adds a little tang to the food.  No longer.  Food never sticks and it cooks in seconds.

It is Good Friday and I made fried rice with shrimps and lots of veggies for dinner.  Pat tells me this is far different than the Good Friday meals she had growing up but still meets the technical rules.  Granted not the plain meal that Jesus shared with his disciples.

Now there will be daughters that may say “FRIED”  with concern about my ongoing life, but there is less than a tbsp of oil in the entire meal.  The non stick surface of my wonderful wok made this all possible.  I finally figured out how to do fried rice, which is basically baked rice, without a lot of goop sauce.  Great meal.

Like many of my tools, I occasionally wonder what is going to happen with this Wok when we pass on.  In 20 more years the coating is going to be beyond perfection.  May have to put it in the Will.