10 Problem-Solving Chinese Kitchen Tools at Amazon

When I graduated from college with a degree in Mandarin Chinese, I didn’t realize I’d be using it primarily at Sichuan restaurants and Asian grocery stores. Yet, here I am years later, with bunches of Taiwanese greens and deli containers of homemade Chinese leftovers crowding my refrigerator shelves.

Before achieving anything remotely authentic in my kitchen, I made many mistakes, whether it was cooking on a glass stovetop without a wok ring or making bao buns in an unlined bamboo steamer. If you’re also running into issues when making Chinese cuisine,  my now go-to kitchen tools are here to save the day. Here’s what to add to your Amazon cart, including a Gxone wok spatula, a Helen’s Asian Kitchen spider strainer, and a Distinctive Style steamer rack.

If you cook with a round-bottomed wok but are stuck with an electric coil or halogen glass top stove (like me), you need a wok ring to direct heat towards the pan, mimicking a real fire. Otherwise, most of the heating element’s heat transfers to the air, rather than your wok. You still won’t get the same effect as with a gas stove, but using this wok ring will get you the best results available to glass and coil stoves.

Many of the best woks are made from carbon steel — a material made to handle extremely high cooking temperatures. High heat evaporates moisture and polymerizes oils to give your cooking surface nonstick properties. At high enough temperatures, it can even impart a distinctive wok-charred flavor. Most home gas ranges, however, offer no more than 20,000 British thermal units (BTU). This outdoor burner offers 65,000 BTU for restaurant-quality results in your backyard.

These spoons are essential for enjoying Chinese cuisine and beyond. The large cavity is a vehicle for not only soup broths, but also dumplings, eggs, herbs, noodles, sauces, and more. Shaped like a ladle, these soup spoons are also great for tasting dishes as I cook.

My spider strainer is one of my most-used kitchen utensils. It plunges into tall stockpots of boiling water and oil-filled Dutch ovens with very little resistance, so you can pick up and strain fried chicken wings, boiled dumplings, or wheat noodles and pasta in one scoop. I use mine so much that it’s on its last leg, so I’m upgrading to this model when it finally gives out.

While you can use a spider strainer to pick up some noodles and dumplings with each scoop, this noodle strainer stays in the pot while your food cooks. When you need to check doneness or strain out the water, you simply need to lift the strainer from the pot. Also, in a large enough pot, you can fit more than one strainer, keeping individual servings separated.

Pushing, pulling, scooping, measuring, and more — a wok spatula’s long handle and curved-to-flat head are designed for quick stir-frying and scraping the bottom of the wok. Made from one continuous piece of stainless steel, this model is long-lasting and dishwasher-safe.

Although I can’t advise it for safety reasons, I’ve used a sauté pan and a portable induction cooker for makeshift hot pot at home. Do yourself a favor and invest in this dedicated hot pot cooker instead. It’s specifically designed to keep broth boiling hot on the tabletop while you dip meats, vegetables, and more.

Bamboo steamers gently cook vegetables, fish, and more in layers, making your favorite dishes tender and delicious. When it comes to stickier items like dumplings and bao buns — which can adhere to the bamboo fibers and become horribly difficult to clean — using these parchment liners can ensure foods release smoothly without limiting the steaming function.

When steaming foods like potatoes that are too large for bamboo steamers, setting this steamer rack into a pot with a lid is the best solution. It’s also the easiest, safest way to make Chinese steamed eggs or custards over the stovetop.

You might find something similar to this plate clip in a set of canning tools. While it lifts jars just fine, you can also use its 90-degree-angled grips to securely latch onto plates, pots, steamer racks, and other hot dishes, keeping your hands safe from steam, boiling water, and hot surfaces.