The wok need not be reserved only for Chinese dishes, either. It can easily replace several pans and become the main cooking vessel in any small city apartment in the world . . . and one wok plus one tin can kettle is all you'll need for cooking up a backwoods camping trip's rice, noodles, vegetables, meats, eggs, pancakes and heaven knows what else.

The best introduction to using a wok according to  Gary Lee's THE WOK: A CHINESE COOKBOOK (published by Nitty Gritty Productions of Concord, California.) While it's inexpensive ($4), it's lucid, entertaining and full of delightful extras such as how to make your own salted eggs and do the Chinese marinating-cooking process of "loooing." Lee doesn't give a lot of recipes . . . instead, he sets down basic techniques and rationale and then liberates you to wing it on your own.

A wok works best over the flame or glowing coals that it was designed for, which makes it a natural for outdoor or fireplace meals. just nestle the pan in a ring of stones (spaced to allow for draft) placed around some glowing coals . . . wood, charcoal, corncob or whatever. The stones will elevate the wok and contain the heat at the same time. A flower pot hibachi of suitable size will also support a wok nicely for outdoor cooking.

Wok can be used in many way, such as :Frying of any kind is easy and economical in a wok since it accommodates more food with less oil than a conventional straight-sided pan does . . . but THE fundamental cooking technique with a wok is "Chinese frying", also known as "stir-frying".     

The first step in stir-frying is to cut all the ingredients into bite-sized pieces. Chinese practice dictates that everything in the same dish should be cut into the same shape and size.  The fancy inclines to the Zen caprice of cutting each ingredient into a different shape and having a variety of color in the pan according to the way we cook and the size and degree of the temperatures of the flame.

Woks have become quite popular the past few years and you probably won't have to go to Chinatown to get one. Most stores that specialize in cooking utensils and offer more than the usual run of Wal-Mart Stores will carry a wok of some sort. I got my twelve-incher at a china-outlet-restaurant-supply store for about three dollars.

A wok can also be used for pan-frying and deep-frying . . . it's especially good for cooking whole fish as the sides of the pan will accomodate a fish without breaking it.

Steaming in a wok can be a delicate process for delicate foods or—with steaming trays—a means of cooking an entire meal in one pan over one fire. Steaming trays are round bamboo constructions that fit snugly down the sides of the wok . . . they stack on top of one another and have lattice bottoms which allow steam to pass from the simmering water in the bottom of the wok up through the various trays.

The Chinese use steaming trays chiefly for the preparation of their FISh and DIM SUM/—dumpling snacks—but they're adaptable to many other dishes. With the trays, it's possible to cook a whole western-style meal of potatoes, vegetable and fish or meat over one flame.