Building an Asian Wok Kitchen

I am so thrilled to let you know that I finally completed my remodel project of converting my small walk-in-pantry into an Asian wok kitchen, thanks to my sponsors Atherton Appliance and BSC Culinary in the San Francisco Bay Area!

Being an Asian cooking enthusiast, especially wok cooking, I have never been happy with my American kitchen with regular cook tops and range hood. I have lost count of how many times I set off the smoke detector and alarm in my house when I fire up my wok for a quick stir-fry. If you are into Asian cooking or wok cooking, you would understand what I mean. The heat is not hot enough, the range hood doesn’t suck away the grease and smoke, and the smoke alarm would go off the hook whenever we are trying to create “wok hei” (breath of wok). So, it’s been my dream to have a wok kitchen—in addition to a regular kitchen. I cook so much for the blog and for my family that I indeed need two kitchens, and thanks to Atherton Appliance and BSC Culinary, my dream finally comes true.

My walk-in-pantry is small, in fact, it’s just 67-inches wall-to-wall. However, space is not an issue if you know how to plan and design the small space into something functional for your needs. I wanted to have two (2) 15-inch gas cooktops, and one of them specifically for wok cooking with high-power burner / BTU. I do not need a huge counter space as long as I have some space on both sides of the burner. I called in a kitchen designer and we drew out the plan. It’s the best way to use up the limited space I have, while being completely functional and efficient. There are cabinets, drawers in the wok kitchen, and one of the cabinets is equipped with a roller shelf unit for my sauces so my limited kitchen counter space will be mostly clutter free.

I reached out to Atherton Appliance and BSC Culinary. When I lived in the bay area, I visited Atherton Appliance in Redwood City and fell in love with its ample offerings of high-end and specialty kitchen appliances. I proposed my plan to them and that my dream cook tops for my wok kitchen would be Wolf gas cooktops. They came back to me and proudly sponsored the Wolf 15-inch multi-function cooktop and the Wolf 15? gas cooktop. Thanks so much to their generosity.

The remodel took a little long than anticipated but I now have an amazing and modern looking wok kitchen. Even though the space is small, it’s exactly what I wanted—a kitchen where I can whip up Chinese stir-fries with ample wok-hei (breath of wok), making curries, stews, soups, and all sorts of delicious Asian food. The wok kitchen is going to be my everyday kitchen where I cook while the regular kitchen can be used for lighter cooking. Now that’s the perfect set up for a cooking enthusiast like me. Let’s check out my wok kitchen.

Here is my walk-in pantry before the remodel.

After the remodel, the Asian wok kitchen.

The gorgeous Wolf gas cooktops. I have two (2) 15-inch cooktops side-by-side, and I can cook up to 3 dishes at the same time.

This Wolf 15-inch Multi-Function Cooktop is made specifically for Asian cooking. The bottom of the wok sits perfectly on top of the flame, which is 22,000 BTU/hour. The direct heat will make sure that I get Asian stir-fries with plenty of “wok hei” (breath of wok).

This Wolf 15-inch Gas Cooktop has two hobs that allow me to make soup, stew, curry, or other dishes while I am stir-frying.

Even though the space is small, my Asian wok kitchen is practical, functional, and I can comfortably cook in the kitchen. I have a roll-out shelf for my Asian sauces and cooking oil, etc. It’s so convenient and saves space, plus my countertop will be mostly clutter free. Because the kitchen is small, it’s also easier for me to clean up and I can keep my regular kitchen spotless all the time.

I have also shot a short video walk-through of my kitchen below. Please check it out now.

If you are in the Bay Area and are planning to have a kitchen upgrade, remodel, or to equip your new home, do stop by Atherton Appliance and BSC Culinary to browse their wide selections of kitchen appliances. I am sure you will be able to find something you love there, and while you are at it, tell them that Rasa Malaysia sends you there!

About Atherton Appliance and BSC Culinary:

Atherton Appliance and BSC Culinary offers high end appliances, design consultation, drawings, cabinetry and countertops for those in need of a complete kitchen remodel.

Atherton pride itself on educating its customers and continue to match them with appliances that suit their cooking styles and add value back to their lives and homes. They feature several fully functioning kitchens that allow their customers to experience the fit and finish of their cabinetry and the trusted appliances that they offer.

The company was founded in 1956 with the idea that they could make a meaningful impact on their customers lives by helping them find the right appliances for their homes and, in turn, increase the enjoyment of their home life.

Brands: Miele, Bosch, AGA, BlueStar, Aficionado, Dacor, GE, Gaggenau, Viking, Wolf-SubZero, Thermador, Body Glove, Capital, and more!

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Inside Pa Ni’s kitchen

A while back, I blogged about the sweets available from Pa Ni, a vendor here in Mae Hong Son city. Suay thamin, alawaa, alwaa jung and peng mong are Thai Yai/Shan standards, available across the province, but the versions sold by Pa Ni are exceptional; I eat the stuff on a daily basis when I’m here, and everybody who’s ever joined me in Mae Hong Son — foodie types and otherwise — have all been blown away by them.

Yet despite having known Pa Ni for several years now, it wasn’t until this trip that I learned that she isn’t in fact the one who makes the sweets. Instead, her husband, Phaithoon, is the man in the kitchen. But Pa Ni appears to run the show, and upon request, granted me and Oregon- and New York City-based restaurateur Andy Ricker permission to spend a morning in her kitchen and watch how the dishes are made.

Arriving on a chilly Mae Hong Son morning, we met a friendly and welcoming Phaithoon, who told us that he’s the third generation of his family to make Thai Yai sweets. When I asked if there would be a fourth generation, he explained that his daughter, who currently works at a bank in Chiang Mai, plans to take over the business when he’s no longer able. “She’s been making the sweets since she was young, and is very talented,” he adds.

Until then, Phaithoon will continue to wake up at 4am every morning — except Buddhist holidays –  to make sweets.

Starting work at 4am seems a bit extreme until you consider that Phaithoon does virtually every step of the process himself. Despite the apparent differences between each of the four sweets sold at Pa Ni, they’re all essentially made from the same thing: some sort of carb (rice, rice flour or wheat flour), which is supplemented with salt, sugar (cane and palm) and coconut milk. The latter is probably the most time-consuming ingredient, particularly since Phaithoon makes it himself, starting with raw coconuts:

which he husks and grates:

before mixing the grated flesh with warm water:

and squeezing it in a manually-powered press to extract the coconut cream (the first pressing) and the coconut milk (the second):

“I used to have to do this by hand,” explains Phaithoon, while making the motion of wringing a bag with his hands followed by an exasperated laugh.

With the essential ingredients ready, Phaithoon can start making sweets. One of the more intriguing (and delicious) dishes he does is something called alawaa jung (????????-????). Unlike the others, wheat flour is the base for this one, which beforehand, Mr Phaithoon dry-roasts in a wok over coals

After it’s been lightly toasted, the flour is then sifted:

and combined with the other staple ingredients: coconut milk and cream, salt, golden cane sugar and palm sugar. This mixture is then continuously stirred over a low heat for about 40 minutes:

Towards the end of this process, Phaithoon throws in a pretty awe-inspiring amount of butter. He explained that, when it’s available in Mae Hong Son (generally only during April), he’ll also add fresh durian.

After the mixture had reduced and was sufficiently smooth, he scooped a bit out, drizzled it with fresh coconut cream, and gave it to us to taste:

Eaten at this stage, the dish was warm, soft, rich and just slightly sweet. It reminded me a lot of Indian-style carrot halwa — a dish with which I suspect alawaa shares both a culinary and etymological link.

But Phaithoon wasn’t done yet; all of his sweets are finished via a unique flourish.

After spreading the still-warm alawaa into a shallow pan, Mr Phaithoon covers the entire surface of the sweet with a thin layer of rather watery coconut cream. The pan is then covered with a sheet of metal, which is stacked with a pile of coconut husks. These are ignited:

and allowed to reduce to coals, causing the top layer of the sweet to firm up, the liquid in the coconut cream to evaporate, and ultimately, a topping that’s deliciously rich and thick, and intermittently and seductively charred:

It’s a clever, resourceful and delicious technique:

and one that will hopefully continue for several more generations.

Pa Ni
9 Thanon Singhanat Bamrung, Mae Hong Son
9:30am-3pm

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In the kitchen with Wolfgang Puck and Alain Ducasse

It’s been a while since this incredible evening happened, but thanks to a few nudges from you guys, we reached back into our archives for the images. What would we do without you amazing people? You keep us in check and encourage us to post regularly. Thank you for that.

You see, we were asked to photograph a private dinner party at Hotel Bel Air’s signature restaurant in Beverly Hills. When the  request for a quote came in, we thought it would be a cool evening to shoot under the stars in one of LA’s most talked about historic hotels. We’ve shot all throughout Los Angeles’s prized restaurant jewels, so this seemed like one of our typical evenings of photography work.

The photo assignment included all the usual requests that an art director and photo editor would need to have. But then when there was the mention for portrait shots of Puck and Ducasse, we did a double take.

Alain Ducasse? Wolfgang Puck? Private Dinner Event. Ok, now this was something really special. That meant having to actually get dressed up (even as photographers), iron some wrinkled clothes, shine our shoes and strap up with our cameras for an incredible evening.

And what an incredible evening it was. Wolfgang Puck’s signature restaurant at Hotel Bel Air was having a special dinner event with special guest Chef Alain Ducasse. Both chefs are friends, both are respected in their profession, and both have an incredible sense of humor. All that, along with some fantastic food, wine, company, conversation and photographs made this one our the most fun photographic evenings we’ve ever been a part of.

Why we love our job so much is that much of our time is shooting in the field and on location. The talent, ranging from home cooks to established chefs, are always such a pleasure to work with. They bring us into their lives and allow us to capture those private, intimate and special moments that few get to experience.

Most importantly, they trust us to share and tell their story. That trust is a huge honor for us and we take our work very seriously.

So for this evening, we were requested to shadow both Chef Puck and Chef Ducasse during their time in the kitchen and with guests in the dining area. On top of that, our assignment was to capture food detail, restaurant detail, restaurant activity, motion, emotion, interaction, plating, staff activity, staff beauty shots, guest shots, guest activity………and the list goes on.

How did we do? We tried our best, shot like crazy, ran around property to capture every moment listed and made a lot of new friends. Then we made it home before midnight and passed out into a wonderful deep sleep.

Do we still love our job? Absolutely, positively, yes.

-diane and todd

Chefs Ducasse and Puck busy in the kitchen

Outdoor seating under the veranda. It was a beautiful afternoon. 

Guests have arrived and the evening is in full swing.

Todd hiding behind the door and Diane backed up against the wall! The End.

More Chef shoots:

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Cheap and Useful Kitchen Tools: 8 Favorites

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December 13, 2012Cheap and Useful Kitchen Tools: 8 Favorites

All Clad cookware makes me swoon as much as cheap cooking gadgetsfound at Asian markets and thrift shops. I love the high and low-brow as wellas the in between. You don’t have to spend a ton on cooking equipment to cookwell. In fact, the eight tools highlighted below are inexpensive and they canelevate your cooking quite a bit.

Here’s a round-up of metal kitchen tools that I reach foroften. (I chose metal as a way to group things and hope to progress to plastic,wood, and the like.)  You can find these handykitchen helpers at Asian markets, houseware shops, mainstream retailers (even Target!)and online too.

I have a stainless steel steamer as well as bamboo steamertrays. With the bamboo ones, I rig up a pan for steaming using a set of perforated pizza pans. This is one in a threesome and is good for small tomedium steamer trays. Set it atop a pot and put your bamboo steamer on thepizza pan.

You won’t have to worry about flames burning the bamboo orsteam escaping from below the steamer tray. The pizza pan is like a perforatedlid. On occasion, I use the pans for reheating pizzatoo.

Quarter sheet pans are great as prep trays, cooling and draining friedmorsels, and baking small quantities of food. I got several about a year ago atSurfas in Culver City and use them as much as I do regular half-sheet baking pans.You don’t have to use much parchment paper or foil when cooking with thesesmaller baking sheets. They’re sturdy and well sized. I can separately roastpotatoes on one and asparagus on anoother on the same rack in the oven. Thereare regular and perforated ones, which are terrific for food to a crisp.

This past year I also fell for small roasting/broiler racks (above, right). Costing less than $6 on Amazon, they were purchased to fit inside thequarter-sheet pans but work well for large roasting pans and baking sheets too.The clever design lets you choose the amount of elevation; just flip. The racks are also easy to clean  -- no grids,corners or folding parts to deal with. They’ve been so useful in my kitchenthat I bought some for my mom and stylist Karen Shinto – two people with whom Ishare kitchen tool tips.

I never thought I’d buy one of these vertical roasters but Idid for roasting Peking duck, a story and recipe I wrote for the Los Angeles Times. It works extremely well to mimic theroasting conditions of professional Chinese duck roasters. The skin crisps andbrowns and the fat melts downward. I’ve roasted chickens on the roaster too but it’s my go-totool for roast duck.

Japanese markets and dollarish stores like Daiso are where Ifind these lightweight stovetop grills.

I started using the foldable grills for tofu and it workedlike a charm. Yes, you can do some of thatkind of light grilling in a toaster oven but there’ssomething wonderful about direct exposure to the flame. This one fits rightover the griddle burner on my new stove, which I suppose means I found a usefor that burner.

For DIY dumpling making, take an Asian-Latin approach. Agood tortilla press will instantaneously made you a good Asian dumpling maker.I stressed over rolling out basic dumpling wrappers by hand until I realizedthat I could leap frog a tiny bit – and cut down on the work by half – bypressing the dough first in a tortilla press. The aluminum ones are not tooheavy so they won’t smash your dough too much. A tortilla press buying guide was posted on Asian Dumpling Tips.

There’s barely a week that I don’t reach for this scum skimmer.It’s sold at Asian markets and housewhare shops, as well as online. The fine mesh efficiently capturesa raft of scum from a bubbling pot of broth. It’s does a decent job with fatthat’s coagulated too. Shallow fine mesh skimmers like this work very well.

Asian vertical handled strainers are used by professionaland home cooks alike for reheating or cooking noodles for individual bowls ofpho, ramen, etc. You can dunk, shake and dump the noodles into bowls and getthem set up for the toppings and broth. 

Aside from making Asian noodle soup, the strainer is also fabulous for blanching small amounts of vegetables in a pot of water. For example, if I need to parboil green beans, carrots and pasta, I use the vertical strainer for each vegetable. The pot is still full of boiling hot water for the pasta, which I then boil as usual and drain the pasta in a colander. Strainers come with mesh, perforated metal, or wire. Match the size to your needs. I have medium and large.

I love these small tongs, which I call “tiny tongs” becausethey measure only about 7 inches long. This fall, I was invited to cook with corporateR&D chefs at a major food manufacturing company. When I was looking for tongs,all they had were these:

The tongs, which cost little though you typically have toorder a dozen or so to get a deal, are great for grabbing small pieces of food, turningdelicate foods over, and plating. Rosle makes gorgeous surgical-like tongs forchefs but Vollrath’s tiny tongs (mine are model 47007 but these look the same) are the poor man’s clever answer.

If you haveinformation to add or favorite tools to share, don’t hold back. These cheapand cheery tools make great gifts to your friends and yourself. I often get theholidays going with a little shopping for myself.

More posts on metal kitchen gadgets:

Vietnamese coffee maker buying guideWater spinach splitter (very clever design)8 Mighty Mini Kitchen Tools (small yet strong!)Posted in Cooking Tips & Tools | Permalink

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Comments Cheap and Useful Kitchen Tools: 8 Favorites

All Clad cookware makes me swoon as much as cheap cooking gadgetsfound at Asian markets and thrift shops. I love the high and low-brow as wellas the in between. You don’t have to spend a ton on cooking equipment to cookwell. In fact, the eight tools highlighted below are inexpensive and they canelevate your cooking quite a bit.

Here’s a round-up of metal kitchen tools that I reach foroften. (I chose metal as a way to group things and hope to progress to plastic,wood, and the like.)  You can find these handykitchen helpers at Asian markets, houseware shops, mainstream retailers (even Target!)and online too.

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