Wok facts for kids

Cooking in a wok

A wok is a Chinese pan used for cooking. It has a round bottom. The most common use for the wok is stir frying, though it can also be used for deep frying, smoking, braising, roasting, grilling, and steaming.

In Indonesia, the wok is known as a wadjang, kuali in Malaysia, and kawali (small wok) and kawa (big wok) in the Philippines.

Images for kids

A wok and karahi on a Western-style stove. Note that the karahi (right) is sitting on an ordinary burner cover, while the round-bottomed wok is balanced on a wok-ring
A stick-handled flat-bottomed peking pan. While the surface looks like Teflon, it is actually well-seasoned carbon steel
A Han dynasty Chinese stove model with cooking pots showing the basic attributes that derived to modern wok stoves.
Preparing food over a modern gas fired pit-type wok stove.
Outdoor charcoal wok stove.
Natural gas burner head from a modern gas stove for woks
A carbon steel wok on a Chinese wok stove.
A wok cleaning brush made of bamboo.
A wok on an outdoor wood stove