Fires breed because there is oxygen present to help it grow. All you have to do is simply starve it of air by throwing in something dryish and large enough to smother.

Here’s a few ideas to keep at hand:
The next thing you are going to throw into the wok eg. noodles, cornstarch coated meat.
Some plain flour to dust.
Some plain boiled rice.

You can also move the oil around the pan to burn off the oil quicker.
If all else fails turn off the gas and keep a fire blanket nearby or a phone to call the fire brigade .

As an adult I have been lucky enough to have travelled the world – much of the time just to try out some of the best restaurants and their cuisine. Food is one of my biggest passions and the only reason why I have not opened up my own kitchen is because of the long hours involved and the detriment to life as a result. I have experienced this as a son of a chef and don’t really want to repeat the cycle. Whereas my father and many other chefs have lost the passion for food, my interest has intensified and as a result I experiment a lot more and my palate has become more sensitive.

As well as a lot of fusion and western cuisine I still cook and reimagine Asian dishes and I now prefer the sweeter taste of well made Japanese soy sauce in my Asian cooking rather than the harsher and artificially salty taste of Chinese soy sauces like the Pearl River Bridge range (colouring and potentially carsonagenic chemicals are used in the process too as confirmed by the Food standards agency). The Japanese soy sauce I use are sweeter due to the addition of wheat and have a sherry like flavour due to the addition of alcohol as part of the fermentation process. The production is also far more sophisticated than the production of Chinese brands. This does also mean that they are a lot more expensive.

In many of the recipes I have posted I have been specific to which Kikoman soy sauce to buy. As the sauces are imported, they are all in Japanese and I don’t have a Japanese keyboard and most of you can’t read Japanese (I apologise if most of you can). There is only one more reference so that you can purchase the same soy sauce that I use and that is the Kikoman number.

Here’s a reference for you about my favourite soy sauces:

Kikoman C00036 Reduced Soy Sauce (Gen-en Marudaizu Shoyu)
Kikoman C00039 Soy Sauce (Shoyu)
Kikoman C00044 Organic non alcoholic premium Soy Sauce (Tokusen Yuuki Shoyu)
Yamasa Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce (The whole bottle is in English)

I tend to use the Yamasa soy sauce only occasionally when I want a really strong salty & alcoholic flavour like when I’m cooking a salty fish dish.

There are other varieties of Soy Sauce too, here are a few off the top of my head:

Kecap Manis is a really thick and treacle like soy sauce due to the high content of palm sugar. I prefer not to use these at all as i wake up with a guaranteed headache the next day (maybe an allergy ).
Kicap Lemak is like Kecap Manis but with less sugar content
Shiro is a high wheat, low soybean soy sauce which makes it really sweet and great for sashimi (raw fish sushi without the rice). It’s odd that most sushi restaurants here don’t have this available. Keep it fridged after opening or it will go off pretty quickly.

Some examples include Italians who cook their pasta in different regional mineral water to get a different taste to their pasta. The Japanese make really good quality miso soup by double filtering their water beforehand for absolute purity.

When buying from a takeaway/restaurant you are left little choice as to what water is used (usually the local tap water) but when cooking at home we can use what we like. Why not try it out for yourself and see if you can taste the difference – I’ll chance a bet that you will.

Try different things like cooking with mineral water or putting evian through a filter or filtering tap water through your normal water filter before your kettle’s filter (if you have one).

When a chinese takeaway/restaurant is busy, if only a little oil is used some of your food gets stuck onto the wok because over time, the non stick coat begins breaking in places because of use of metal utensils and metal scourers (for cleaning).
When the food gets stuck on the wok it takes longer to clean with the scourer. It’s as simple as that – more oil equals less cleaning which equals more greasy food.

The same will apply in your home. I’m only talking about the type that can go on all hobs – the ones with flat bottoms. Don’t buy a round bottom wok unless you have a really high flame on your gas hob and a cradle to hold it.
If you buy a cheap wok that does not come with a non stick coating you will have to season the wok with oil and even using wooden or plastic utensils will not stop it becoming sticky quickly. If you buy a cheap non stick wok then you can’t season it and the non stick coating is usually completely useless after about 5 uses.

Luckily there are high quality woks on the market which are non stick and are guaranteed to stand the test of time. Le Creuset, Circulon and even Asda direct do an anodised aluminium material wok. Anodised Aluminium is seriously non stick but I would still recommend only using wooden utensils (pref beechwood or olive wood).

Even with the best wok your food will turn out poorly if you are not brave enough to heat up your oil to the max! It may sizzle and spit but that’s what will give you the special carbon taste and familiar asian flavour.