Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I cooked with my new wok today (more on that later). I wanted to share this photo of the new wok beside my trusty 40 year-old family heirloom, which is a handmade hammered steel wok. It has been a workhorse. The hammer marks on my old wok serve to hold food that you want to pull away from the hot middle while you add more ingredients, or reduce a sauce. The hammer marks on this new Souped-up-recipes wok are more pronounced, so should serve the same purpose even better. They are manufactured, not hand- hammered. I followed the seasoning instructions exactly, including washing off the protective wax. I think not all the wax came off in hot soapy water though, as the seasoning oil just wanted to slide off. I made two applications of oil and hour-long bakes in the oven. However, the seasoning process was not really successful. Tonight I cooked kung pao chicken in the new wok. The first ingredient was marinated chicken in a generous amount of oil. The chicken stuck really bad! After cooking the chicken, I paused the recipe to deglaze the pan with some water and a lot of elbow grease. The good news is that I think the wok is ready to be seasoned again, the bad news is that we probably got some of the wax in our food. Bottom line, compared to my trusty old wok, this wok looks to be high quality. The weight is nearly the same, and the flat bottom is a little easier to deal with on the stove. Unless I come back to update this review in case I am not able to get it properly seasoned for nonstick cooking, then you can be sure that this wok is a good buy. It seems very sturdy and should last decades. *Update* After seasoning again, and doing some deep frying, this wok is perfectly seasoned and completely non-stick. *Another update after 10 months* I use this wok at least once per week. I haven't had to re-season even once. It has developed a beautiful patina making it completely nonstick. As soon as I dump the food into a serving dish, I take the hot wok to the sink and rinse with hot water. Everything comes off easily with a few scrapes of the spatula, and a few swipes with a nylon brush. No soap! Back on the hot stove with the burner off for a quick dry while we eat. I couldn't be happier with this wok!