Searching For The Perfect Wok
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2021
- The Path To Fried Rice : Ep 3. I just need a wok and a stirring thing (Easier said than done) SquareSpace : 10% off your 1st order using www.squarespace.com/frenchguy
Cantonese woks have two handles made out of metal. Northern woks usually have a handle that can be made out of metal or wood. Southern/Cantonese woks can be any size from medium to XXL. In this episode, I cover everything you need to know about woks, these pans are so versatile. A flat bottomed wok could be a great addon to you personal kitchen toolkit.
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Salut,
Alex - บันเทิง
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"I might be pansexual". I'm glad that my morning coffee was already consumed, as it would have come out of my nose!
Uncle roger 😏
i see a uncle roger joke there
yeah that was a good one. Unexpected from ESL
Or maybe he is a pan in disguise, happy to know that his kin is being appreciated
Yeah, I had a mental double-take and then snorted :D
Fuiyoh! Alex gonna be god of egg fried rice soon
reaction video les goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I mentioned this in his first video that if Alex screws up this, uncle roger will not let you live 🤣🤣
prepare to call him Uncle Alex in 1-2 coming videos
Hey Uncle Roger, want to THANK you for bringing on the challenge. Bought my FIRST wok, and now I have a burner outside. I'll post a vid to Reddit of my progress. BUT, I'm now eating better (lost 10kg), feeling my asian roots (an not shame to family anymore), and now LOOKING FORWARD to cooking! THANK YOU!
more reaction vid let's goooo
Came to learn about fried rice, left ready to write a thesis on wok pans
Seriously, every video this man puts out feels like a mini thesis. The amount of time and effort he puts into researching the topic is truly refreshing compared to most content put out today. (edited for puntuation :p )
I’ve worked a at a restaurant as a wok chef after learning fried rice and I’ll share this advice for learning/mastering the flick. Spend the time to try and flick and turn a steel wool pad or something similar. Get to the point where you can flip catch flip non stop. If you can do that comfortably you’ll cook fried rice no problem(of course seasoning and quality ingredients matter as well)
I started off cooking in a diner and that's how we learned to flip eggs. By the time I got to the Asian restaurant, I was ready for the wok.
I did that with a kitchen sponge when I was like 7 years old. I was really interested in the way my dad could just toss food around and he gave me a little frying pan and a kitchen sponge to practice with.
Great idea! Less mess and setup
What's the best wok for at home gas stoves? I'm guessing it's actually the wok in the thumbnail (12 or 14 inch carbon steel w/ a wooden handle)?
As an asian that has a lot of woks. Watching a Frenchman being impressed with a wok is peak entertainment
When he was trying to learn the unspoken rules for Italian pasta I got the same feels
Haha. A french explains in english.
Ikr it's just that old pan with a bit of rust on the handle that my dad has had for decades
Hi Alex, I am Chinese and growing up my parents owned a Chinese restaurant. Naturally I began to work at my parent's place on weekends and eventually my father taught me how to cook using a Cantonese wok. In order to practice stir-frying with the wok, he would put a small metal mixing bowl in the middle and made me flip it hundreds of times. I had to master flipping the bowl back and forth until I was ever allowed to cook anything. You should give this method a try!
These weekly uploads are killing me. I binged old content and now I have to live at the speed of time
Oooof... well just wait until this series ends and you have to wait EVEN LONGER for new videos 😫😫😫
@@frcShoryuken Seriously! Weekly episodes are AWESOME. I'm used to an episode every month or two.
Same, it's like the opposite of the internet age. Have to remember what it was like waiting for a CD store to have the latest album
Same! Also wondering how many episodes there will be. At the current pace we might be watching till Xmas
The second spatula showed in this video is actually quite commonplace in Chinese households, in fact the go to model when it comes to home cooking. Restaurants, however, tend to prefer the ladle, perhaps because it is more efficient if you have all your ingredients stored in open containers right by the stove.
Ladle is better for fried rice. Easier to break up the rice without destroying the grains with a ladle.
I prefer the sort that resembles a fireplace ash shovel. I learned wok cooking in a Thai restaurant so it might be a Thai thing, but it's always stuck with me. I have a wooden one and a metal one. Edit: I somehow missed when he showed the second one, it's what you were talking about.
@@wykpenguin But in a restaurant they cook far more than fried rice
@@recoil53 restaurants also have more than one utensil.
@@haldouglas4773 no, most restraurents only use laddle with wok. Main reason being no ingredients will stick on the wok (unless you are doing something wrong) so theres no need to scrap the wok. Thus the laddle fulfill all the need to work on the wok
Searching for a wok is hard but searching for THE Perfect wok is harder than perfecting a perfect meatballs
Yea, i'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one haha
The perfect wok is the one your grandma found at your local Asian grocery store for less than five bucks
Getting a good wok is easy. Getting good wok hei at home is the hardest.
@@jeremylam6060 that felt nostalgic now, i owe you one
@@webherring I find recipes using less seasoning get better wok hei even using home stove. Heavy seasoning like using chili paste the home stove can't evaporate the moisture quickly to char the food. Nothing beats the jet burner at the restaurant.
Just for a plate of fried rice this man is building a whole restaurant in his house
Just for a pizza, he built an oven
In LE STUDIO
Well, he already built one for his sauce-making...
It's kind of ridiculous how he is approaching making fried rice. He's purposefully overcomplicating things to an absurd degree. I feel like he is just doing this shit to pump out more videos.
@@goldenboy140 you are welcome to not watch. Alex makes some of the best content on youtube
He's back at wok!
This feels like it could be a story arc in a cooking anime...
yes that's eqcatly what his videos are!
some cooking manga probably will took this video as reference if the mangaka seen this...
Maybe in Food Wars?
For reals
Hey Alex! Most Chinese cooks (at least Cantonese) will use both the Wok Chaan (the flat spatula with the slightly flared walls) as well as the ladle.
Alex is the Ling Ling of food. Practice, Practice, Practice
If you can stir fry slowly you can stir fry quickly!
@@Ajmc832 omg yes
Mapo your tofu, and Chao your Fan.
the pansexual joke came out of nowhere, it really got me lmao
Hey Alex! Here in India, at our homes we use the "Southern Wok" which is called "Kadhai", for stir frying and deep frying. There's this famous Maharashtrian dish called "Poha" that we make in the Kadhai. And our moms teach us cooking in the Kadhai explaining the exact same science that you explored in this video! That was great to watch man!! You should definitely check the dish out brother!
Kadhai is deeper like a pot, meant for stewing, not stir-fry like Chine dishes. It's different from wok. Maharashtrian moms teach the exact same science? Sure 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Interestingly, in your previous episode, the chef at the Shangri-La uses one of the stirring thing you ruled out, the flat scraper.
The ladle works well when your stock is simmering and you want a poached egg to garnish your soup. The Michelin chef has the right tool for what you want to do here.
Whoa it’s like you read my mind!! I was JUST seasoning my sister’s wok and thinking I should buy one for myself
it’s practically impossible to get enough BTUs in a home setting, therefore stir-fried wok food should be enjoyed in a restaurant (100k+ BTUs), imho.
@@kam_iko About 1 billion Chinese people use a wok in their homes to make fried rice and other "wok food", I don't think they'd agree with you.
@@kam_iko you can get a propane burner and cook on that. I've also eaten pretty good fried rice cooked on a flat top. A master craftsman doesn't blame his tools.
@@kam_iko Always "hot wok, cold oil". It means let the wok warm up fairly before adding oil and your ingredients. This technic is good enough with any home style stove.
@@kam_iko It's not BTU's. Like all asian stuff, it's technique.
I want that Hotwheel WokHei Tshirt 😂
I know right! I’m gonna search for one now
Thats one of Alex's shirts. It has Alex's name where Matel should be.
The wait for new episodes is always worth it. The time and care you put into these projects is apparent. Your enthusiasm has had me hooked for years. Best cooking show anywhere.
8:29 "I might be PANsexual"
lmao that caught me off-guard.
Haha I laughed out loud. That came out of nowhere
Deserves a golf-clap
Me, too. I have tears from laughing so hard.
Same here! 😂😂😂
Wok fuckboy
Alex is that weird engineer that sometime in the middle of the campaign multiclassed to a chef and now he's all like: I can do anything kitchen related :D
I love how with every series and technique you find out it’s harder then expected. Cooking is life!
Alex , you are a source of inspiration in every level. "....that there's an ocean of things i can learn", love that line of thought!!!!
hiii can u you collab with paileen from hot thai kitchen!!! she's been making series about stir frying, fried rice or what wok to use since years!! fried rice isn't just china and having the thai perspective could be very interesting!!!
*pailin
love this series. I always like the simple dishes that are way harder to master than you might think!
It's really not as hard as he makes it out to be lmao.
@@goldenboy140 damn, you must be really insecure to be spamming this much.
LOOOOL I knew he was gonna go all in again. He just cant escape it, its part of how he is and I completely understand and support it.
I did egg fried rice for the first time today in a high sided frying pan. Huge success, and a ton of experience for next time. Setting the bar low on tools and ingredients for a start.
Cooking the rice a few hours in advance and let it cool down made it easy to work with.
I'm new here and I must say the amount of detail the production team puts into each video is just... I love it!
You mean himself
he is the production team
*Alex doesn't instantly succeed*
"It's way more complicated than I thought it would be."
It's ridiculous how he is approaching making fried rice. He's purposefully overcomplicating things to an absurd degree. I guess it makes for more content
@@goldenboy140 He’s not overcomplicating, a good fried rice is not easy to make. And he’s not aiming for “good”, he’s aiming for outright perfection.
I love your videos, but largely because you show the entire process you go through, including any failures etc. I enjoy problem solving, so I think this makes sense that I enjoy watching you encounter a problem and then inevitably solving it and sharing the process. I'm only mildly interested in being a better cook, but I don't want to miss any of your videos because I enjoy your process!
love those series, like it keeps ppl watching and also every vid gets much more informational, since theres no need to put everything into one
love your work, hope to be your viewer for many years to come
We need a "This is way more complicated than I thought it would be" shirt!
Alex I just want to thank you for highlighting Cantonese cooking in such a genuine manner. It’s always been so under appreciated because it was priced so low. Finally it’s being celebrated through your platform. Thank you 🙏
Well also underappreciated because many restaurants in the West were not opened by actual chefs. Go to a city with a large Chinese population like NYC or Toronto and the difference is huge.
@@recoil53 this is also true though this was and is still the case in Hong Kong during the 80's boom. There was so much demand for new restaurants that a lot of apprentices left training early to open restaurants. A lot of skills and recipes were lost or mixed up.
Alex, I look forward to your videos every week. Thank you for doing what you do!
No matter what goes wrong in the world, we can always count in Alex to bring joy to our lives with his cooking videos!
I have $1000s worth of sauce pans, frying pans, stock pots, etc. Then when in Japan I bought a $40 carbon wok and it’s amazing and it literally can do 90% of what the rest are designed to do.
Welcome to an Asian home. Use wok for everything. The reason why is the thing is so big you don't have any space left for other pots and pans 😜.
Any pics of that wok???
@@flyinghigh2000 haha yes
Where can we find your wok?
@@user-fv1jn1gw5w You need to go to Kappabashi in Tokyo.
It puts a huge smiles on me as you chose the Cantonese style. Cantonese cuisine is known for its techniques and complexity can match or even surpass French cuisine.
As a cantonese person, I don't think it's a fair comparison. Cantonese is one of feeling, while French cuisine is almost based on science. Two very different styles that dont necessarily need comparison!
Watching you explain the ladle helped me understand why it makes so much sense. I've seen it and done it a hundred times but never thought about why it works lol
Your french accent adds the cherry of credibility when it comes to your obsession with cooking... ;)
Something that I never really took from Gordon Ramsay. (I know, only stereotypes!)
Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it's all organised by the Swiss.
Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German and it's all organised by the Italians.
ESL teacher here to say that "I might be pan-sexual" is the mark of a C2 ESL speaker... le fait d'etre capable de faire non seulement des blagues dans une deuxieme langue, mais de faire les blagues culturellement relevants et base sur des jeux de mots est incroyable!
@5:01 best Alex quote ever! "That's not wok hei man!"
I love and appreciate your enthusiasm and commitment to learning.
Franchement mec vu que je suis bilingue et francais de base ca fait vraiment plaisir tes videos elles mettent le sourire aux levres et on voit que t'y mets tout ton coeur! GG a toi
Never did I think we would get a pansexual joke from Alex but, man, I'm real happy we did
With every video that you upload my life expectancy increases 1 year.
These editing just keep getting better and better. Keep up this great work!
I have seen your fried rice series in my recommended feed for a few weeks now. I've watched each one so far just off of the recommended portion of TH-cam. Ya earned a subscribe from me Alex. I look forward to more!
Let's go Alex posted!
Has Alex discovered the wok spacer ring that they sell at basically any Asian mart, that just sits ontop of a gas burner/cassette stove?
I'm sure by the end of the series, Alex will build an Asian restaurant grade stove, which uses a totally different spec.
Brilliant video, the storytelling is always so perfect
OOOOOH! This is awesome, Alex! I can't wait to see the rest of this series!
8:29 Admit it you've done the entire series for that -pun- pan.
I feel that Uncle Roger will be very proud of you by the end of this series.
Wok-Hei!
Best Wok and Roll channel on youtube
can't wait to learn more in this series!
i was inspired after the last episode and made a (IM[and mother's]O) damn good fried rice (best yet), actually getting very good toasted wok hae in a regular stainless steel frying pan on an electric stove with smoking hot coconut oil, but i'm keen to improve it further.
Alex : *chooses the oval ladle over the South East Asian one*
Me: *sad SEA noises*
I prefer the SEA one myself.
F
We use the Sea one at home
I'm southern chinese. In my home we use the SEA spatula thing, which is actually widely used in China. But what he chose, the long handled ladle thing, is what a lot of chefs use. No idea why but I imagine it's handy with chef techniques.
@@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407 It's handy for chef because chefs can get condiments without using the other hand, which is holding the wok.
I love how scientific you are: “stirring thing”
This is shaping up to be one of your best recent series!
Alex, your videography skills are eclipsing your cooking skills! So creative!!
You should have some viewers come taste your fried rice each time you make some. Let me just volunteer myself for this role.
Alex, part of the journey is SEASONING the wok. You will learn the "character" of the steel. Each wok has a personality. Whilst the canto wok has it's place (feeding 100 diners), the handled wok is better for beginners. But thank god you've ditched the cast iron pan!
The "spatula" is also an essential tool for different techniques, so don't discount it.
In my food journey, which is Western centric, I have to give credit to the Wok being THE most versatile. Stir fry is one side, but steam, braise, boil are its other aspects. You can even cook rice in it if you've ascended to God level. So there's 4 new series streams for you!
These videos are soooo well done it’s actually insane
this series is so freaking good. loving it Alex!
Tbh there r 2 kinds of fried rice out there! The professional fried rice and the mama friend which are basically done by what ever you have from left over food!Mama fried rice are amazingly good too! Done by basic home wok and home stove! But the love in there covers all the equipment difference it’s a typical Chinese childhood taste memory! ❤️
The previous video he went to restaurant who cooked aldente rice just for fried rice. Slightly undercooked so that when the chef stir fry it can cook fully. That just amazes me. I want to go eat that fried rice. I have to find a restaurant that go that far for fried rice
Funny how he uses a small wok with a long handle to stir a large wok with small handles 😂
What?! The “small wok” is a ladle. Lol
@@MimiYuYu dats de joke
Things are starting to heat up in this series. I can't wait to see how Alex will delve into the technique, it's sure to delight and inform.
The sponsor segment at the end is a great improvement over the one in the middle. Makes your videos much nicer to watch :) Love the series!
Do we have a link to the shop where the wok was bought?
there is still one tiny tool that a lot of people overlook. You need a chinese newspaper to fold up into a pad to hold the handle. I kid it doesn't need to be chinese but I swear newspaper just seems to work really well. towels work too but newspapers just has that dai pai dong feel about it haha
Just grippy enough and not too thick.
Alex old swedish chef looks at your videos to buy a wok. you inspire me. Thank you
I was a customer at a small Asian takeout for many years. There was only one chef. His fried rice had flavorful Wok Hei. It was just the best! He eventually sold the business to the city for community expansion. I always told him if he ever retired he could come and drive a school bus within the local school district. That is just what he did too! We would often have pot-luck food events in the drivers room during the year. He always brought a huge pan of his fried rice. The pan always was empty by lunch time. I tasted his fried rice only once as it never never tasted with Wok Hei like at his little take out restaurant. To this day, I long for his fried rice. I have never found fried rice anywhere as good as his. All I can identify is that it is a “toasted taste” which is the Wok Hei that is the secret flavor I have never found again. Sadly he was never able to duplicate that flavor as a home cook. I am sure it is the BTU’s temp and his years developing his technique. I still to this day long for his Wok Hei fried rice and it has been many years. I often think about what it would take to get equipment to produce the high heat to practice making it myself at home..... now on my “bucket list.” A fond memory......
Oh I almost fell out of my chair when you said, "I might be Pan sexual"
I was kinda waiting for it to be honest. But I disagree. He just seems ghee.....
I'll see myself out
This man is like the Marco Polo of our times.
Thanks Alex, your videos are informative and fun, I really appreciate the production values and of course your charming accent.
You Got the set up. You'r history is accurate. Nice. I'm guessing lots of people are looking forward to your learning journey.
Stir fry when it was invented hundereds (if not thousands) of years ago:
"all I have is Rice and an egg, to eat, guess I'll cook them togethter"
Fried rice now:
First recorded fried rice in China is about 600AD
"I might be PANsexual" lol!
Yo Alex, im no master chef but I do hail from Asia. I use a wok at home almost all the time and I find the push and pull method still works wonders. all you need to do is get comfy with the wok (dont take it to bed). Watch many videos on how people handle woks to have a better understanding of their control. No better channel to suggest than Wang Gang, I know youve watched him before but you cant get more authentic than a Chinese guy from China teaching Chinese people how to cook with a wok. I hope this message reaches you and I cant wait for next weeks episode, Salut!
I have watched all your videos when I had COVID and now I start coughing every time see another video of yours popping up.
Pan sexual XD okay, that might have been one of your best ones yet!
7:40 Alex: Throws knife on the floor.
Me: Inhale and clutch my cheast.
Watching that hurt my soul
@@surfmeister713 yes it did. Annoyingly I missed the time mark with about a second.
7:37 😁
you are so funny and entertaining. Flipping food in a wok pan is no joke. Tried doing my dad's job for a day and it was so heavy. Not to mention the jet blasting heat from below, it was intimidating.
As soon as I saw the wrist motions of the two pans I wanted the one that rested on a pivot. It looks so much easier and more graceful.
hi alex, maybe you can check out singaporean food after this series! love your videos!
the clang as Alex dropped his knife on the floor was physically painful to me
It's a terrible knife
@@FrenchGuyCooking so, make it Worse?
I use a really nice short handle cast iron wok. It was hand sanded and heavily seasoned to the point that the interior feels closer to glass than metal. Its only drawback is, as Alex stated, that it is fairly heavy. But that does mean that it holds heat extremely well which means that it works great if you can muscle it through use.
I actually just love you so much. You just seem like such a loving and loveable person
We're on a ritual to summon uncle roger and please him with good fried rice
Uncle roger patiently waiting to react your future fried rice
Not sure if anyone caught it, but I love how Alex hums to the heroic anthem in Chinese movies - I m about a year to late but I love your videos thank you for making these !
Hi Alex I really admire your work. Congratulations! I'm from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), unemployed, trying to make a living with You Tube by cooking easy and delicious recipes that I prepare for my family.
This is the only time I've ever laughed at a "pansexual" pun. Thanks Alex.
being a chinese myself, Im shocked at the overcomplicated fried rice lmfao
@random user Alex "overcomplicates" everything, it's his whole appeal, this is obviously not stemming from some sort of mystification of the east. Also chinese food can be very complex envolving a lot of techniques and steps unheard of in other cuisines.
@random user nah Alex goes overboard with everything
He built a whole rolling machine just to make croissants, he removed the heat limiters on a domestic oven to make pizza & created a massive fire & electrical hazard in the process - attempting to reproduce the qualities of commercial kitchen production with domestic equipment or things available online.
you can for sure do the usual simple version with the kitchen equipment & utensils found in every western kitchen. But the qualities of the end result won't be the same - which is kinda the point of the series he does.
@random user
Alex is exactly the kind of person who would obsess over oatmeal. That’s the whole appeal of the channel. He already makes a competent fried rice - now he’s aiming for Michelin Star quality.
Moreover, there are parts of the world that take oatmeal seriously. You’ve got the World Porridge Making Championship in Scotland, for example. Just because a food is mundane doesn’t mean there isn’t an art to it that can be mastered.
I Chinese Chinese and I just realized I knew shit about fried rice or woks
He made it very clear in the beginning that this is not about home cooking level fried rice, so maybe stop comparing it with like your mom's fried rice.
When making fried rice at the resturant I work at, we use the spatula one for tossing the rice and the big ladle for breaking it up initially and seasoning!
I thought the “returning to home” portion by Reversing the video was truly imaginative; Bravo!
I really hope this series involves an Uncle Roger collab at some point.
8:30 As a pan sexual boy I approve your joke!😂
First time on this channel. 3:05 is when I knew this guy is awesome!
The hand that is holding the wok needs to toss the rice as the other hand pushes the rice with the ladle along the curve of the wok so there is two motions that need to be synchronized. Both need to move forward and back simultaneously. To achieve the smokiness the rice needs to be dry and cool (not warm or steamy). Hope this helps :)! Big fan, keep up the good work.