The wok sells itself, late at night, when you are weak.

It was during our first year of marriage, late at night. My wife is the night-owl, I'm the early riser. Cable hadn't expanded to it's 500 channels yet, programming was either off the air or reruns of really old shows. Something new came around, half-hour long commercials! The birth of the info-mercial. We hopped on board early.

Bubble Wok by oskay

Our first infomercial purchase, even before QVC and the internet, was a hand-hammered wok. An energetic Scotsman (or someone with a good Scottish accent) was the host of the infomercial and presented the item with a clear voice and effort. The advantages of the wok were clearly presented and it just sounded really cool. We thought about it for a while and we went ahead and called the 800 number to order one.

It arrived a while later and we opened it up and found it had come from China. How cool was that, a wok from China. Well it was 1990 and the irony was inescapable. So we cleaned it up, cured it and fired it up to try it out. By and by it worked exactly as advertised! The food didn't stick. You could push meat and such up the sides to get it out of the way and it stayed. When you put the lid on, when steam came out, it was ready! It also cleaned up in a snap.

We've had the hand-hammered wok now for 19 years and still enjoy it on occasion. Unfortunately my kids aren't into stir fry yet (yucky veggies), but I'll haul it out for my wife and I to enjoy. I've read recently that these woks were made by Chinese prisoners and such, and if so, I am not sure how I feel. But then again, I read about it on the internet and we all know how reliable that is....