I wish I had the time and inclination to do more research. All these recollections are off the top of my head.
There was a particular moment in time when wok cooking became popular. I remember my mom getting a wok and bringing home an assortment of different utensils.
It’s hard to remember now that ethnic cooking was once an exotic thing to try. The ingredients weren’t always easy to get or required clever substitutions.
We didn’t have this cookbook at our house.
My mom got really good at wok cooking.
To this day I’m timid with heat and I never managed better than a giant dish of soggy vegetables.
I remember years ago, my father got a wok setup off some info-commercial and it came all silver and shiny. In his wisdom, he went out to the garage and “seasoned” it with a blow torch. Got it blackened and looking 50 years old and we tried a simple dish of Oriental Veggies and slices of cube steak.
He kept it all moving but in the end, it tasted like propane a little. He did not use it much and I think it was just $20 and they tossed it a few years later?