HomeCookwareWoksHelen Chen's Asian Kitchen 14-inch Carbon Steel Wok with Bamboo Handles |
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116 of 118 found the following review helpful:
 Very Nice Wok! Nov 30, 2008
By F. Morris
"That Guy"
I purchased this wok about 1 month ago. I spent some time researching woks before I made the purchase, including going to stores to look at them, and reading reviews on the internet. I ended up choosing this one and am very happy with my selection. I like the fact that it has bamboo handles and thick carbon steel. It is also well made.
I looked at woks at stores and found that most of them were poorly made. At one box store there was one for about $20. It looked okay, but upon inspection, the metal was thin and the handles were not made well.
I also went to a cooking store only to find poor quality too. The wok I looked at was about $39. Very thin material.
I will agree with one cooking expert who said not to buy an expensive wok. You can spend up to $100 on one, but you don't need one that expensive. In fact, a good carbon steel wok with decent thickness should cost you about $20 to $30. I got mine for a little over $22.
This wok is about the thickest one you can buy on the market. 1.8mm. I think Helen Chen sells another one that is 2mm thick too. The thickness of this one is just perfect. Compared to others I looked at, this one doesn't flex when you pick it up.
As far as seasoning the wok. Use a gas stove. An electric stove doesn't get hot enough. I initially used my electric stove, but was not satisfied with the glaze, so I got my white gas Coleman camping stove out. It worked just perfect! The electric stove works fine for cooking though.
If you have an electric stove, like I do, and need to season your wok, go to a friend's home that has a gas stove, or use a camping stove like I did. Open all the windows, it does get quite smokey and the smoke will set off the smoke alarm.
In conclusion, I recommend this wok. If you like stir fry like I do, you will be very satisfied with your purchase.
Thanks for reading my review.
43 of 44 found the following review helpful:
 Wooden helper handle falls apart Dec 03, 2010
By Joe
"The Home Chef"
I bought this wok based on the good reviews and attractive design. I've had it for 6 months now and the bamboo helper handle has dried out and fallen apart in pieces literally. Lesson learned - I would recommend buying the plastic handle woks instead of these glued bamboo handles especially if you use high heat for stir frying.
It's not worth the shipping for warranty and have it rejected to say that it's been abused due to using high heat, which is how you are suppose to cook with a wok anyway. Additionally, I don't want to bother going through trouble of re-seasoning a new wok again.
The exposed helper handle is actually composed of two L-shaped metal pieces with a gap in-between them instead of one solid U-shaped handle. so it loosely rotates a little and is rendered useless without the bamboo wrapped around it - bad design I'd say. For now, I've made a fix by wrapping a makeshift pipe around those two metal pieces to serve as a handle.
I would never buy wooden handle cookware, especially glued bamboo types, again.
27 of 29 found the following review helpful:
Helen Chen Wok Feb 06, 2009
By K. Domagalski
I purchased a wok for my sister for Christmass. I purchased a non-stick coated wok. After receiving the wok my sister went on the net to see reviews of several woks. She decided not to keep the wok I bought because of cancer reports due to TEFLON coatings. After reviewing many woks on AMAZON, I decided on the wok by Helen Chen. After receiving it both of us were very satisfied with the quality of the product. Being the first wok we ever seasoned, we got it wright on the second try. It works great on a flat top electric stove.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
New favorite cooking tool May 18, 2010
By R. Lang
Was a little bit worried about the fact that this wok needed to be seasoned, but it was easy and now works great. All the other pans have pretty much stayed in the cupboard, and this one stays on the burner. This is the cheapest pan that I own, and my favorite. Don't need to worry about scratching it, don't need to worry about denting it. After seasoning it is slicker than my teflon pan. Great value.
16 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Rusted and handle broke in less than one month Nov 06, 2011
By Angie
I am an Asian housewife and I do my share of stir fry cooking several times a week. I have several carbon steel woks already but I was looking for a less heavy one, so I bought the Helen Chen's wok. It is lighter, but everything else about this wok has been a disappointment. Despite a careful seasoning process I did before I used this wok for real cooking, the wok turned brown and black in its first mission, and it rusts so easily, I have to rush into cleaning it, drying it, and hanging it right after the food is out of this wok. Carbon steel woks do rust, but shouldn't be in such a lightening speed, my other woks made in Japan or Taiwan are so much better. What makes it worse is, even if I clean and dry the wok in time, the next time before I cook with it, I'll be sure to find new rust, so I have to clean it again before using it.
If this is not bad enough, there is further news. The helper handler broke into three pieces within 2 weeks. Because it was broken, I got to look inside how it was built, and that just tells me why this wok has so many problems --- because it was made cheaply. Underneath the bamboo handler, there is supposed to be an iron piece that really hold the wok, guess what, that piece of iron is not really in one piece ! I saw two fractured iron stick there, they are not even connected to each other ! So I was actually using the bamboo to hold the wok, yet the bamboo is made of four pieces that were glued together. No wonder it didn't last forever.
It was such a disappointment, if I could have given it a zero star, I would. This wok is certainly not up to the duty of high temperature stir fry dishes. The price is low, but its performance is much lower. Not worth the money.
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