/ck/ - Food & Cooking

maybe
I've been getting my wok recipes and techniques from chinese cooking demystified on youtube and they did a collab with Kenji so maybe he knows his shit
most of his stuff is pretty decent but I did get burned on some of his sous vide recipes

No thanks, I'll stick to reading people who actually know what they're talking about

>>19834102
No, The Food Lab is mid, and woks are a meme.

james alt

>>19834102
Absolutely. I love seeing people share their lived experience through the lens of their own unique native culture.

>>19834102
I don't own a portable gas burner, so a wok is wasted on me

>>19834102
What happened to the original lopez?

>>19834102
I would never give this cuck money. "men" like him are everything that is wrong with society these days

>>19834438
>I don't own a portable gas burner
then get one

>>19834102
I can't stand the fat hapa faggot retard who changed his name to sound like a mexican

>>19834582
>Overweight hands typed this
Don't fuck with us, Anon. We know that you're not even close to being a shining example of peak masculinity. In fact, you've molded your entire worldview based upon bullshit you've read on this website.

>>19834102
this guy hates small businesses

>>19834117
>so maybe he knows his shit
I'm envious of your hope Anon. Seeing his mediocre tonkotsu broth recipe become the standard used by almost every food channel was depressing.

>>19834102
What is this guy's deal exactly? Also I once saw somebody give this good rundown on why his fake gay ass name is just made up to sound more "diverse" and asian, I wonder if anyone has that or remembers it
>>19834143
I would believe "the food lab" is mid, but how are woks a meme? They're just a big, round, deep frying pan. And before you say something like "you can't get results without a restaurant type burner", yes that's correct, but it hardly defeats the point of a wok. A wok is good for frying even if you aren't getting wok hei, not to mention, you can approach or even achieve actual wok hei anyways by some combination of skill, technique, and actually getting a powerful burner.

>>19834102
Wok are you talking about

>>19834447

>>19836289
i think you describe why it's a meme though. a wok is just a different shaped pan, not some phenomenal cooking secret. even wok hei is just a meme. isnt it just high heat? you could have 'wok hei' using a carbon steel pan i imagine. doesn't have to be a wok does it?

and i use a wok too, but there's way too much bs about 'wok hei' and how it's perfect for whatever. i just like the form factor. i dont think there's like a "people just dont get it!" type of deal about them. they just dont want a big ass wok in their kitchen cause they're westoids. who cares.

so i can understand the criticism, especially if he just makes a book that seems to be based on this one pan. there's no reason you can't use another pan, unless all his dishes involve high volume of food and needs a wide pan for it.

>>19836555
>describes why the woke is an actual useful implement
>ya i think you described why its a meme + 3 paragraphs of retard shit
retard

>>19836555
You need fire to achieve wok hei because it's flavor from small oil particles burning when they touch the fire. Doesn't have to be a wok or an industrial burner, I've done it in a carbon steel pan in a wood fire pit, but can never get the same flavor using induction or a regular gas stove with a small flame.

When I see a recipe claiming it's "better than takeout" or just as good and then they don't use fire to cook it and get wok hei, I know it's trash and they're lying.

>>19836560
uh, i clearly said there's nothing you can't do with another pan. except for the volume. because woks are usually bigger.

explain the "useful implement" that you seem to have gleaned from my comment?

>>19836571
>nta
It’s the shape. Having the fry oil at the bottom of the cone allows you to “stir” the food in and out while you “fry”. It’s not that it’s a meme, it’s that it’s a specialty instrument. Like a comal. The memetastic energy comes from the fan boys who think they found the ultimate solution to whatever shit cooking they do. They’ll be on to the next faggoty thing soon enough. Like a comal or Argentine grill.

>>19836570
pretty sure he's just gonna say you cant have wok hei at home, in the book. so how is it not a meme.. it's gonna be a bunch of recipes he says it's better to use a wok, but you dont have to use a wok.

i downloaded the book and that's what it says. flat bottom wok is already adapted for home cooking on stove. it's already a departure from this "secret chinese cooking" idea.

"Most of the recipes in this book will work reasonably well in a large skillet or, better yet, a large slope-sided saucier pan (a saucepan with gently curved corners), so if that's all you've got, by all means use them."

the only thing that makes the flat bottom wok typically more useful, is that the flat surface matches the burner compared to wide pans. so it's only the fact that you dont usually have a burner that matches the width of those pans. you can just buy a pan that does not have a large diameter to match the burner as well.

the point im trying to make, is that i would trade my wok for a perfectly sloped carbon steel pan of the right diameter. it's just a nice one usually costs 3-4x more. you really cant make use of the volume of the wok if you also want to keep the heat high for the sear. the only thing i meant about "form factor" was that it keeps the oil splatter off my counter.

>>19836660
wok hei more like cock play

>>19834102
>The food lab
Isn't that just a more detailed basic teaching book for french cooking?

James Alt. His middle name is Kenji and his wife's maiden name is Lopez.

He's an insufferable douchebag who won't call kaffir lime by its proper name and says shit like "non-binary pals" in his videos. Fuck him.

>>19834852
Go back

>>19834582
You have no idea how dumb Lopez, Rodriguez and them are. Like when there’s a group of them talking, you can literally sense the low iq. Their countries are a reflection of this.

Guys, gals and non-binary pals

>>19836883
>who won't call kaffir lime by its proper name
rundown?

>>19837058
He equates kaffir with the Arabic slur for nonbeliever, and/or the Afrikaans slur for black, though signs point to the kaffir in kaffir lime being unrelated.

To avoid offending anyone, he just refuses to use the term. What a giant douche. Fuck people who take offense to it, just like fuck dumbshits who think the word "niggardly" is somehow offensive.

>>19837271
That is pretty fucking retarded, even for him.

>>19834102
He would have sold more copies if he titled it "wok this way". Maybe there were legal issues with that title.

>>19836289
His deal is that he stole Harold McGee's food and cooking as science approach from McGee's 1984 book "On Food and Cooking". Kenji's father is a well respected white American scientist and his mother is a Japanese scientist whose father was also a well respected scientist. He grew up with millionaire parents in one of the wealthiest Boston suburbs and then attended MIT, surely because of his own merit and not because of his family of famous, important scientists. HIs birth name is James Alt but he's so embarrassed by his immense privilege that he goes by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. The Lopez is from taking his wife's last name, presumably to further distance himself from his whiteness.