Customer Reviews

Wok Shop's 16 in Carbon Steel Pow Wok (hand hammered) w/ Wood Handle

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this wok will certainly not win any beauty contests, the functionality when properly seasoned is beyond compare. It is far more versatile than just stir frying, I even use it for corned beef hash. Once your wok arrives, put it on high heat and wait until you've scorched it and all of the smoke disapates. Then scour the pan thoroughly, as it was most likely coated in machine oil to prevent rust while in storage. Dry the pan and place it back on high heat. There should be no smoke this time. Once the pan is hot, pour some high heat cooking oil on a cloth (or use a brush) and coat the inside of the hot pan (you can also use lard with good results). Turn the heat off, dry up the excess oil, and let the pan cool before reheating the pan and coating it again. Do this at least four times and then you're ready to cook. Never use soap or any other cleaner once you're wok is seasoned, hot water and a sponge (or a bamboo wok cleaner if you'd like) will be all you'll need to keep your wok clean. Be sure to dry, heat, and put a thin coating of oil on the heated wok after each cleaning before storing your wok.

This is a strong, solid wok. It's designed for use not looks. It is incredibly versitile. Add in the dome lid when you purchase it and it is a Godsend for such things as frying chicken, browning meat, steaming veggies, gravy, and of course stir fry and fried rice or pasta. Give it exactly the same care and treatment as a cast iron skillet (keep it seasoned, no soap ever, clean it while still hot, etc) and it will last you a life time. A little note is that the handle does unscrew with a phillips screwdriver so you can take it off and season it in the oven which is a little neater than doing it on the stove eye. I love it.

I've had a carbon steel wok for 30 years, a little too big tho. Talked to Tane Chan (the owner) at her Wok Shop in Chinatown and she steered me to the 16" hand hammered pow wok. It now looks like a cast iron skillet, but with a beautiful golden brown patina and slick surface. Never use soap or detergents, a sponge with hot H20 is all that's necessary. I'd advise against the bamboo scrubbers (sorry poster). Wash it out, wipe it with a paper towel and set over low heat till dry. Massage veg oil into it while warm and it will love you forever.

Don't be dismayed by the wooden handle when it comes to seasoning it in the oven. Tane instructed me to wrap the wooden handle with a damp dish towel followed by tin foil. It worked perfectly, be prepared for the towel to be hot when removed from the oven.

I use it just about everyday. Fish tacos are the bomb with the wire rack accessory that wraps 1/2 way around the wok. They drain perfectly! Eggs, meat, chicken and stir fried rice can't be beat. For a couple of extra bucks throw down for the lid and steamer rack, you'll need them both and are sold separately. Also go for the metal stirrer (spatula), it's shaped to fit the wok and the sound is like music when you're tossing veggies or whatever you're creating.

Check out the book "The Breath of a Wok" by Grace Yound and Alan Richardson. You'll find Tane on page 37. The book is priceless as is Tane.
My pow wok is my best friend in the kitchen and is never relegated to a cupboard or closet. She sits proudly on the stove at all times begging to be used!

Since I live about 40 miles from "The Wok Shop", I decided to go up to SF and check out the store. I left with the wok that is similar to this one, but has the steel handle instead of the wooden one(I didn't like how the handle felt a little loose, which could be easily remedied with a drill & a well places stainless steel nut & bolt). First of all the people working in the store were extremely helpful & friendly. And the instruction they gavee me for seasoning the wok worked very well. Second, the wok doesn't look quite as "Hammered" as in the picture, but for $25.00 it is still a nice wok. I ended up seasoning it on an outdoor grill and it was ready to go in less than one hour. Make sure you scrub it very, very good when you first get it to help rid it of all oil & contaminents that might have been used to keep the wok from rusting ( I would use I scouring pad such as a chore boy over a scrubbing sponge, but only before you season it. I used Peanut oil to season my wok and after 3 applications of oil, I have a beautiful black wok ready to cook with.

I've used this wok for the past 6 months or so, and like it a lot. It joins the 11" Teflon coated Sears wok and the 14" carbon steel flat bottom (Walmart) wok in my household. When I'm cooking outside on my Baby Kahuna burner (excellent, by the way), I find myself grabbing this wok more than the other two.

Seasoning it is simple, using the instructions provided by The Wok Shop. When cooking, I use a wok shovel bought at a local Chinese food store, and the food releases very easily from the seasoned steel surface.

The wok generates a nice wok hei, which is the elusive "smoky" taste I love in my local takeout Chinese lo mein dish.

The large size of this wok makes it simple to prepare large quantities of whatever I'm cooking at the moment, whether it be dry fried green beans or a generic chicken stir fry.

The only reason that I rate this wok as 4 stars, rather than 5 stars, is that the wooden handle is attached using just 2 small nails (brads). Over a short period of time, the handle loosens and starts to wobble, which is a bit disconcerting when you're handling a wok full of lovingly prepared food. I could probably replace the handle with one that fits better, but it's still "hanging in there."

The seller of this wok, Tane Chan of The Wok Shop, was also a pleasure to deal with. She was very responsive to my questions, and the order was shipped very quickly.

Overall, a very good wok but I just wish the handle could be a bit more solid. Despite this minor gripe, I'd certainly buy it again.

I just received my wok yesterday but prior to I received an in-depth email with instructions on how to season it along with suggestions for wok cookbooks. When I received my wok there were freebies like chop sticks, a basic wok cookbook, a mixing spoon and more instructions about wok seasoning.

I haven't done this yet, but it is essential because when you unwrap it the wok is tacky to the touch.

I feel that the only way I will fail at wok cooking after all of the careful hand-held instructions is that I forget to turn on the stove.

The Wok Shop was an A+ shopping experience.

We purchased this 16" Hand Hammered Wok direct from the Wok Shop in San Francisco.

We own a restaurant grade gas stove and an outdoor Wok cooker and thus we only use the traditional "round bottom" style Woks which are the best type for serious high temperature, traditional Asian Stir-frying. If you want that authentic "Chinese Restaurant Taste" at home, this high heat method of cooking is the only way to get it! (At least 18,000 BTU, preferably 65,000 or higher for restaurant results at home - See link below)

Seasoning this Wok before actual use is CRUCIAL!

We followed the seasoning instructions that were included with the order (Instructional video of the process also available on The Wok Shop's web site) which involves cleaning the Wok with Soap and Water, then after drying it thoroughly, coating all metal surfaces inside and out with Peanut Oil and then baking it in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. We let it cool and then scrubbed as much of this first layer of Patina off before drying and baking for a second time at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. We then stir-fried 2 cups of chives in the Wok at MAX heat with a table spoon of peanut oil until the chives were charred black, making sure to rub the chives over the entire inner surface of the pan as we cooked. According to Tane Chan, owner of The Wok Shop, this final step removes any metallic taste from the carbon steel surface and completes the seasoning process. Contrary to some of the other owner's comments about the appearance of this Wok, we find it to be a VERY attractive looking pan, especially after the seasoning process where the steel turns a beautiful copper bronze hue.

This Wok model heats up nicely and responds rapidly to any changes you make to burner settings, but does not seem to get as hot at the same burner setting as the 16" Cast Iron Wok which we also bought from the Wok Shop and is also available here at Amazon.com. A little higher burner setting is required with this model, probably due to the difference in thermal performance between Carbon Steel and Cast Iron. Our advice is to buy both since it is always nice to have choices in cooking tools!

If you are looking for an authentic Chinese Wok, produced in China by skilled artisans, this Wok is a viable choice, but we suggest the steel handle version over this one. We detail why later in this review.

NOTE TO OWNERS OF ELECTRIC RANGES and MOST HOME GAS RANGES!

If you have an electric range, a flat bottom Wok would be a better choice than this round bottom style. Although you can use a round bottomed Wok on an electric element using a Wok Ring, unless you have a very high output electric burner, the ring will raise the Wok too far off the element and make it difficult to control the temperature during the cooking process.

However, for anyone planning to use this on a conventional range, either gas or electric, be warned that very few home ranges can get any Wok hot enough to reproduce the flavors "Wok Breath" you find at a Chinsese or other Asian style restaurant. Commercial burners can produce between 50,000 and 150,000 BTU worth of heat! Compare that to your average home stove's cooktop which is lucky to give you 9,000 BTU. There is an affordable solution to this problem though...

Eastman Outdoors 90411 Portable Kahuna Burner with XL Brackets and Adjustable Legs

Take your cooking outside to the back deck or balcony with this "Bad Boy" and you will be amazed at how 65,000 BTUs can transform your Wok and your previous recipes into dead ringers for the real thing from a professional Asian kitchen! Although we have a very high end gas range in our kitchen, even our stove's 18,500 BTU burners can't compete with what this very affordable, high quality portable propane cooker can! This also makes a great camp stove for at the beach or tailgate party! Hooks up to a standard LP bottle just like the one you probably already have hooked up to your BBQ grille! A MUST HAVE for anyone looking for that perfect stir-fry result at home!

3 STARS BECAUSE OF WOBBLY HANDLE ISSUE

We gave this Wok three stars instead of five because like other reviewers, we too have already seen the wooden handle get loose after the seasoning process. We used a hammer to drive the two nails that hold the handle on to the metal handle base further into the wood, but we fully expect that we are going to have to drill a couple of additional holes into the metal handle base and install a couple of sheet metal screws to better secure the wooden handle to the sheet metal handle base. Why screws are not being used during production of this model we have no idea, but we do plan to suggest this change to Tane over at the Wok shop. This is the only flaw in an otherwise superb cooking tool, but because we are likely going to be forced to perform our own modification to fix this design flaw, we could not give this product a much higher score.

UPDATE 11/07/2010

Although we really love this Wok, if we had it to do over again, we would have purchased the STEEL HANDLE version also sold at The Wok Shop. The Wooden Handle is getting even more wobbly since we wrote this review and we will probably be forced to modify it with screws to better secure it to the metal handle base, so you will probably be happier if you passed on this Wooden Handled model here and went for the same thing with the all metal handle instead.

Hope you found this review helpful!

I just got my wok today and I'm extremely pleased! The Wok Shop was kind, quick, and very helpful. I had a little trouble with an Amazon credit card issue and had to call the The Wok Shop to ask some questions about my order and they where very helpful. They where very quick in shipping out my order, the same day in fact.

I highly recommend The Wok Shop. FYI please keep in mind that if Amazon says something is out of stock call and ask to make sure. Amazon said some things were out of stock but when I called The Wok Shop and told them about it they said that's not true we have it in stock. So be sure to call and check because they most likely have it. Happy woking! :)
16 inch Carbon Steel Pow Wok (hand hammered)

For gas cooking this is the best wok your money can buy. I use the round bottoms and take off the burner cover on my Garland. (For Electric get the The Wok Shop's Own 14" Flat Bottom Carbon Steel Hand Hammered Pow Wok (Round Bottom in Photo) ) Forget Calphlon or all the expensive other kinds (unless you know what you are doing and need for specialty reasons a wok with constant temperature in which case you get a cast iron wok). But for everyday, in and out cooking a hand hammered (pow wok) is the way to go. Trust me. A. I know how to cook. and & B. I've owned all the other fancy ones at one time or another and they aren't nearly the perfect tool this is. Also you might think about the 14" if it's only dinner for 1-4 you make, its a much easier size to handle, in the normal kitchen, on a normal range. I actually have both and use the 14 a bit more.

These woks are beautifully temperature sensitive. They rapidly get hot enough to really properly cook the food, but then can cool quickly so as not to char later ingredients. And most importantly they season beautifully by just following the included instructions (although I went to their web site which was great help to clarify my first time) and then they stay that way with no further effort. I had washed it thoroughly w/soap and water and thrown it in the 450 oven until it blacked nicely. Then when still hot I used a handful of kosher salt and a handful of baking soda and at high flame scoured the inside by working the mixture up and down the sides with a wood spoon. Then I dumped it and steamed out the inside in the sink with a rag and immediately put it back on the flame with 2 tbsp of Canola and when smoking sauteed at high heat a cup of chives and 1/2 cup of ginger (again with 1/3 cup rock salt) tossing them all around the inside until they completely char-coaled. And it's been perfect for well over a year. Never use soap, don't cover it with oil before you put it away (as the oil will dry and gum up). Nothing ever sticks to it anyway and I've stored 1 for months in my house by the ocean and it never rusts.

Even after I used olive oil cooked at a much lower temp to make a Sicilian Calamari and even tossed in the tomatoes to fast cook them down before I tossed in and dressed it all with the cooked pasta, my pasta didn't taste at all of metal (I recommend again charring the ginger and chives to cure that exact problem) and all I had to do was wipe it out with water and a rag, even after all that gummy oil and acid from the tomatoes.

It maybe my favorite pot of the 30+ pro grade pieces hanging up in my kitchen (including my sainted old (and just re-tined) copper saucier).

And to make it all complete the Wok shop people are great. I ordered another wok this month for a friend and then 8 hours later that night added a 4x7 cleaver for myself on a different order and the Wok Shop picked up that both orders were going to the same place and credited me back (unsolicited) the $9 in shipping Amazon had charged on the cleaver order.

Right store right product.... no kidding!

This wok overall is pretty good. There are 2 issues with it that keep it from getting 5 stars, both related to the handle.

1) The wooden portion of the handle is too short. It is very easy to accidentally grab hold of the metal portion that it is riveted to. When cooking in the 25,000 BTU range, it is very easy to accidentally burn your hand.

2) The wooden handle does not fit perfectly snug into its holder. Consequently, there is some annoying play in the handle. I don't think it will fall off, but it should be secured better.

I like the size of this wok. I'm able to toss the food without utensils, but it does require some arm strength as it is made of heavy, high-quality steel.

I recommend looking on YouTube for videos on how to season it. I don't think the oven seasoning method is as effective as seasoning it on the wok burner.