Asian cooking equipment is in a restaurant near you.
Last night to celebrate my birthday I joined my family and friends for a great evening at the Wockbar, Dee Why. The restaurant was already packed with people, even though we were dining early. All the food was delicious and unlike many restaurants there was variety of healthy choices for the kids.
What sort of equipment is used in an Asian Restaurant?
Typically you should expect to see some of the following equipment in your local restaurant.
Dim Sum Steamers
Steaming is a cooking method that works using boiling water continuously, causing it to vaporize into steam; the steam then carries heat to the food, thus cooking the food. Steaming is a powerful cooking method that allows the heat to penetrate into the food. Ideally the food is separated from the boiling water but has direct contact with the steam, resulting in a moist texture to the food.
A Dim Sum is a commercial snack food normally consisting of minced meat (usually pork, lamb, chicken or prawn), with cabbage and seasoning, encased in a wrapper similar to that of a dumpling. They can be served deep-fried or steamed and are commonly dressed or dipped in soy sauce.
Luus Rice Roll Steamers' pressurised design produces maximum steam output resulting in perfect 'Cheung Fun' every time. Yum Cha pot steamers suit high volume dumpling steaming, and are for use with stackable bamboo baskets or an optional multi-tiered steam rack set.
Noodle Cookers
Noodle cookers are built for speed and the continous production of perfect noodles.
Whether they are used for high boil or standby simmer, constant water temperature and enables faster turnaround of product through outstanding recovery times from low heat settings.
The baskets are generally portion sizes and multiple baskets of noodles can be cooked simultaneously.
Noodle cookers are a must have item in an asian kitchen.
"Talk doesn't cook rice,""
Chinese Proverb
Rice Cookers
Rice cooker or steamers are an automated kitchen appliance designed to boil or steam rice and are found in almost every asian restaurant worldwide. They consist of a heat source, a cooking bowl, and a thermostat. The thermostat measures the temperature of the cooking bowl and controls the heat. Complex rice cookers may have many more sensors and other components, and may be multipurpose.
Some rice cookers automatically switch from cooking to a warming mode once cooking has been completed.
Asian Wok Tables
Asian wok tables are the standard product found in every asian kitchen. The high heat enables fast cooking to keep up with demand. It is not uncommon to see a different chef working every burner and churning out hot and delicious food at an incredibly fast pace.
Most manufacturers offer a choice of either duckbill or chimney burners and these days most are waterless.
Additional equipment
As well as the traditional equipment listed above, you might also expect to see Combi Ovens, Teppanyaki Grills and Duck Ovens in a modern asian kitchen.