How Many Asian Cooking Utensils Do You Recognize?

This dual pot is called Shabu Shabu in Japan and Huoguo in China. It’s used for cooking all you can eat soups with a group of friends, with broth flavors like mala or tomato and a smorgasbord of foods to throw in.

Grab a buddy and go to a Japanese restaurant to taste an authentic tempura deep fry!

Asian cuisine requires tons of slicing especially of fresh vegetables. The mandoline helps. It even has a Japanese cousin called katsuobushi kezuriki (right), which is the traditional way to slice fish like tuna and make shaved toppings.

This is especially used in Vietnamese and Cantonese dishes where water spinach is more commonly eaten.

Thai people love that coconut graters make it easy to get bite size strips of coconut. Vietnamese people use the dao bao to make peeling and cutting vegetables and roots a breeze.

The bamboo steamer (left) is a staple for heating and reheating food like buns. The bamboo strainer (right) for scooping out noodles and vegetables usually to put in another kind of broth.

If you chose any of the above options then you were not too far off. All of the pans above make similar shaped foods. Some are savory like banh khot and takoyaki. Others, the serabi, khanom khrok, and aebleskiver are purely sweet.

Yes! Some farmers may use regular or specialized washing machines to quickly wash their vegetables. One man even used his washing machine to make beef stew. He is probably not starting any long lasting trends though.