So I finally decided to do some Googling on the kind of electric stoves I’ve seen used here in China, since they’re something I’ve never seen before.
Jing Jing and I would fry up seven different dishes in a screamingly hot pan, then I’d pick up the pan, wipe a wet cloth across the cooking surface, and the water left behind would barely steam. Oil, water, and sauces spilled on the cooking surface just sat there while you cooked, not smoking or smoldering, until wiped away.
This thing will boil water almost as fast as a microwave and heat oil to the smoking point within seconds, and you can dial in an exact temperature (fuck this “high,” “medium-high“ or “low” bullshit, it’s all about seeing 120C on the display and getting exactly that heat in your pan) and have instant response. Coming from a normal electric cooktop and then gas, the precision, responsiveness, and power of this thing is almost scary.
Since we haven’t done much cooking lately, I’ve only gotten around to looking up the technology today. This was triggered by a long and fruitless search for a good hard-anodized aluminum pan, because I want to start cooking again, I want one of these stoves, I hate having to use gallons of oil just for a simple stir-fry in a normal iron wok, and the kitchen at the hostel is… well, let’s just say I don’t like to spend a lot of time in it.
So I started looking for aluminum pans on Taobao, China’s version of eBay mixed with Amazon. No dice, except for some Calphalon models that were going for well over $200.
Then I started thinking, okay, there has to be something behind this, and it’s certainly not a health concern or aluminum shortage — let’s figure out what it is. Google to the rescue.
I kind of want to know where they got these f-ed up pots and pans.
Turns out it’s the stove, which is an induction cooker. Who knew that aside from giving us electric toothbrush charging stations, wind-up or jack-off charging LED flashlights, and a promising start to actually viable wireless power, magnetic induction can also be used to accidentally make a crunchy brown omelet for breakfast in about fifteen seconds?
I guess plenty of people, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in action, or even heard of it. More info on induction cooking advantages and drawbacks here — do your own fact checking, the source is clearly biased, but it seems pretty solid to me.
Never had someone ask for an egg cooked half well-done, half completely raw, but I guess this is a plus for induction cookers.
For you non-nerds out there, this kind of stove basically uses a copper coil to put a rapidly alternating magnetic field just above its surface, which shakes the (note) magnetically responsive atoms of anything of sufficient mass and density (various sensors are built in for this) above it to make it very hot, very fast. So it heats the pot/pan instead of itself, which seems like a fairly sensible approach. Kind of like a microwave, except much safer, and far more useful for everyday cooking. Thankfully I don’t have a pacemaker, else the bacon sizzling on the stove would have been less of a cardiac hazard than the stove itself.
I like my bacon as deadly as possible.
Back on topic.
Since:
- Aluminum isn’t magnetic
and
- Electricity in China is expensive
and
- People here have less money than people in the States (yes, even you Han)
and
- This is by far the most cost and energy-efficient method for heating a pan that’s readily available (90% energy transfer, versus 71% for standard smooth-top electric stoves and 40% for gas)
I can see why everyone’s been giving me baffled stares when I start talking about anodized aluminum pans.
The good news is, I can just buy a good iron flat-bottomed wok like everyone else for five to ten bucks. Also, the cheapest “good” induction unit I can find on Amazon is this Circulon, for $200, and has poor reliability ratings … the fanciest one I can buy at the supermarket across the street is about $73 (i.e. rather less than one Hong Kong bowel movement); the same brand as Jing Jing’s, which she’s been using for years and is still going strong.
The bad news is, until I find a decent ferrous non/low-stick pan, I have to keep using massive amounts of oil to keep from having to plate with steel wool instead of a spatula, and my favorite pan of all time, which I was considering asking my parents to bring over when they visit, is useless to me here.
