Buy a wok!

Buy a wok! Not just any wok, do your homework.

If you want to make a little food go a long way, learn to stir fry. In a good wok. Last month I bought a cast iron wok and checked several books out of the library. A few ounces of meat, a few veggies and some rice or noodles can be turned into a gourmet meal in a very short time and the food is better, and better for you than anything you can buy at the local Asian cookeries.

First, you have to spend a few extra dollars on a wok and on some ingredients you are probably not familiar with.

The Wok has been around for over 2,000 years for a reason, it works! A couple of excellent cookbooks by Grace Young, Str Frying To The Sky's Edge and The Breath Of A Wok (both should be available at your library for free) will teach you almost everything you need to know to get up to speed. Grace explains that the culture of stir fry comes from want rather than abundance. How to make a little go a long way. How most of the Asian population had very little, very similar to "soul cooking" where you take what you have and make it outstanding.

Her book, "The Breath of a Wok" spends 60 pages on the history,development, purchase and care of a Wok and is worth reading before you ever buy a Wok, including what to buy if you have an electric or glass topped range.

The hardest part for most Americans will be finding the ingredients. When I was living in San Jose, California, Asian markets where part of our culture. They were everywhere. Here in Tucson, we have only two that I have found so far. Add to that the fact that most all of the products have huge kanjii lettering on the labels telling me what they are but I have to put my glasses on to read the tiny, English interpretation and I have no idea what the products look like. It can either give you a headache or give you an entertaining afternoon, but, the prices are much cheaper than buying the same things at your local Safeway. A couple of examples. Ginger at Fry's is almost $4.00 a pound but at the Asian stores, it's under $1.00. Soy sauce, fish sauce, Hoisun sauce at the local grocery is around six bucks a bottle but under two bucks at the Asian stores for double the amount.

A lot of the stuff I've been cooking is even better the next day which makes leftovers fun
As I said, this requires some initial investment in products, time and equipment but if you are willing to expend the effort, the results are not only great but cheap, or rather, inexpensive.