Customer Reviews

Hot Wok (Hot Books)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I used to wok, I could never get the sauces right. With this book, I've mastered them! I have tried at least a dozen of the recipes in the book and have yet to have a bad "wok" experience. The flavors of the sauces are wonderful and rich, and most of the recipes have basic ingredients that can be found in your local market. They are easy and fun.

It was my first experience with wok cooking recipies. I loved the idea of quick cooking very fresh ingredients at very high temperature. However, many household stoves may not be able to generate the necessary temperature to flash cook the recipies as intended. I solved the problem with a propane out door burner availble at many retail outlet and hardware stores. It generates the necessary heat and keeps the kithchen clean. With this equipment the recipies are fantastic. It is a true healthy and flavorful fusion cuisine.

This is a great cook book. I've had it for years, and made about everything in it, and then varied everything in it (my wife and I no longer eat meat). The best part is all the sauces -- more often than not I now go to this book for a sauce for some other stir fry I'm making. The other reviewer's comment about needing really high heat is sort of true, but my electric stove and flat bottom wok do ok. Not quite flash cooked, but close enough to be very very very yummy! Worth your time, if you're interested in making great food in the wok.

I bought both Hot Wok and Hot Chicken years ago and am buying them AGAIN now because I have actually worn out my copies. These recipes are authentic, easy to make and absolutely delicious. So happy to find them still in print. Virtually every ingredient can be found in a large supermarket; the illustrations are gorgeous and I have not found a single dish that did not taste remarkable!

I own three of the "Hot" series and everything I have tried has been terrific. My family and friends think I am a great cook - I owe all of my best success's to Hugh and Teri. I just discovered the rest of their titles and will be ordering them all!

There really is a proper way to make stir-fry so that it comes out nicely seasoned with bright and crisp vegetables and interesting layers of flavor and texture. This book shows you how - and best of all, it's not at all hard to do. Before Hot Wok, my stir-fry attempts were unappetizing soggy, soy-sauce laden messes. I've got a great Calphalon Unison Nonstick 13 Inch Flatbottom Wok with Lid that I used successfully for any dish other than the ones intended. I passed by the shelves of oyster sauce and fish sauces and chili powders in the grocery store because I'd never learned how to use them. Then I received this book as a gift, and it gave me not just some great recipes, but also the vocabulary and techniques to improvise my own dishes.

I made my first Hot Wok dishes for the boss's boss; I hear it's not a good idea to try new dishes on company, but I couldn't help myself. I did the Thai Duck with Cilantro, Chiles, and Garlic from page 45 and the Thai Chicken Stir-Fry with Baby Lettuce Greens from page 35. To be honest, I did go to the store with a longer shopping list than normal (hoisin and fish sauces and rice sticks weren't in my pantry yet) and took a good hour for all the prep. Delicious, yes, and all the more for me because I was so impressed for having cooked it.

Now I'm able to follow the Hot Creations rules for improvising your own wok dishes to use up leftover bits of vegetables and meat and make fried rice or chow mein-type dishes that seem far, far removed from leftover status. I'm completely happy with this cookbook and do recommend it, especially for Asian cooking beginners.

Put long, whole uncut string beans like snakes crawling inside your dish, and call it rainbow? Decorated a cooked dish with lot of small whole raw tomatos and jammed them among the cooked food? There is no way that I could accept such kind of gimmicky stuff and treated them as Chinese food. Putting raw stuff in or on a well cooked Chinese dish is just like turning it into something totally messed up. But I can understand that kind arrangements are just for photos in the book. Too gimmicky, man. And one more thing to remind: Never used too fancy, too complicated designed, and too colorful plates to hold the FOOD; as plates could only be used to make the food on them stand out, not bury them or block them with strong colors and patterns. Such disturbing distraction is the worst dream that any restaurant owner or chef would commit mindlessly.