Ningbo Cuisine: The Best Kept Secret of Zhejiang Cuisine
Let’s explore the culinary curiosities of Ningbo city in Zhejiang province. A cuisine like no other, even within China!
Whenever we make Chinese food at home, it never tastes quite as great as it does when we’re eating at our favourite Chinese restaurant or gourging on takeaway from the shop at our local shopping centre.
Maybe it’s the ingredients, or even the lack of MSG. But sometimes it’s because we don’t have the right equipment to recreate that signature taste when we eat Chinese food in a restaurant.
We’re running you through the five utensils you need in your kitchen to cook up all your favourite Chinese dishes and achieve that classic Chinese taste you know and love.
Wok
A versatile and extremely useful cooking vessel in any household, it goes without saying that a wok is your best friend while preparing that perfect Chinese stir-fry. You'll also need a wok to get that smoky wok hei char on your stir-fried noodles and fried rice that you taste in the restaurant. You aren't just limited to stir-frying; your wok can also deep fry, boil and steam just about anything! Bust out your wok to create this simple Chinese Fried Rice recipe.
Cleaver
There is a lot of dicing, slicing and mincing involved in Chinese cooking. Chinese food is meat-heavy, so it's important to invest in a good cleaver for some heavy duty weaponry in your culinary arsenal. Your cleaver is your best friend when cutting up this Crispy Pork Roast Belly.
Spatula
A good quality spatula is the MVP of any Chinese chef's collection of cooking utensils. Stir-frying, mixing and sauteing can all be done with this humble implement. You'll want to use a wooden or rubber one to avoid damaging your non-stick pots and pans, but a metal one if perfectly fine when cooking in a wok. Give this easy Black Pepper Beef recipe a go!
Steamer
Dumplings and bao are never quite the same unless they're cooked to perfection in a bamboo steamers. There's something about that classic aroma when the ladies at yum cha wheel around their trolleys piled with bamboo steamers holding all your favourite dim sum dishes. Bamboo steamers can even stack, so you can cook a bunch of stuff all at once!
We reckon you'll love these Pork Bello Bao.
Spider
Basically a metal wire basket that kind of looks like a spider web attached to a long handle. This utensil is perfect for skimming deep-fried goodies out of piping hot oil, or scooping out noodles or veggies from boiling water. It's a pretty awesome invention, and we're surprised it hasn't caught on in Aussie households yet.
Check out our Salt and Pepper Chicken Ribs recipe.
Chopsticks
While you probably know chopsticks best as a table utensil, they're actually essential in Chinese cooking. Households usually keep a set for the kitchen. Chopsticks are used to whisk sauces and condiments in soups, as a cooking spatula to spread ingredients in stir-fries, test the heat of boiling oil for deep-fries, as a quick taster, etc. There are also longer chopsticks made especially for cooking noodles in large batches.
