I bought a wok today. I bought it from a very nice man at Kam Lee Steel Product and Engineering Ltd. on Cleverly Street in Sheung Wan.  It is a traditional round bottom carbon steel wok.

Me and my brand new wok!

I am more excited to cook with this wok than I can express. One of the best things about our flat is that we have a great gas cook top with four burners and a fifth burner in the middle with a ring for a wok!I was given very specific instructions for preparing this wok for cooking. First, heat the wok until it turns blue or very dark. Then take a half an onion, soaked in water, and rub the inside of the wok with the onion.

Moving fast. This wok is hot!

You don’t want the onion to burn, so when you smell the onion burning you stop and re-soak the onion. You continue to rub the wok with the onion until you no longer smell any metal. Your nose plays a big part in this whole thing. Lucky for me. When you achieve the goal of no metal smell, you then reheat the wok and rub the inside with pork fat or pork skin, which is plentiful in the markets here. It will probably even be free. However, I did see Crisco in a specialty store and that could be used. I am committing to using this wok at least two times per week. My goal is for it to turn that great dark black and be non stick before I venture back to the US.

Sunchoke and Cashew Stir Fry with Egg, Basil and Asparagus. I am very happy with the results. Not greasy or oily at all.

Oh by the way, this was not an outrageous financial commitment. The whole deal set us back about $9 US.

There is another dark side of wok cooking. And that is the endless wok puns that Steve comes up with.  Here are just a few:

• Always wok on the bright side of life
• Just keep on Wokin.’
• Wok like you mean it
• Wok, wok, wok til you can’t wok no more
• Wok baby, don’t run
• Wok til you drop
• Just wok away
• I’m wokin’ here!  #@!!!