Wok shopping

I went into Chinatown to pick up a wok as a gift. My favorite store, Woks and Things, is closed, and pickings were slim. I saw some very pricey stainless steel ones in the Richland basement, a few small ones here and there, but the only large ones were in a souvenir and gift shop on Wentworth. I picked up a 28" (est) carbon steel one for $46. Only other choices were much smaller or stainless. Was there a better source somewhere?

I love my cast iron wok. I don't know where you can get them locally, but many are available on-line.

I ordered a wok from The Wok Shop in San Francisco. It's a small shop and has really excellent, personal customer service. I called before I ordered to chat with the owner about various options.

Store: http://wokshop.stores.yahoo.net/
Good general advice on woks: http://wokshop.stores.yahoo.net/wokology101.html
Other storefront: http://www.wokshop.com/

Darren72 wrote:I ordered a wok from The Wok Shop in San Francisco.

I love the Wok Shop.

Ditto the praise for The Wok Shop. Got one of their carbon steel woks, lovely piece of work.

Geo

From the looks of things, I got a good deal. 26" (I measured) carbon steel for $46 plus tax, compared with $60 at The Wok Shop.

JoelF--depending on the quality, of course!

Geo

lougord99 wrote:I love my cast iron wok. I don't know where you can get them locally, but many are available on-line.

I have a Lodge cast iron wok, which is available pretty much anywhere they sell Lodge (which is a lot of places). Sadly I moved from my gas-stove house into a glass-top electric range apartment so many standards of cooking I was used to are now out the window. But if you have the appropriate heat source I enthusiastically recommend the Lodge wok; like any cast iron cooking item it takes considerably longer to heat up but once it's hot it sustains cooking temps during food additions like nobody's business. If you don't go cast iron then the carbon steel items at the Wok Shop are the way to go.