Q. Why not use a frying pan instead of a Chinese wok?

Answer

In contrast to other cooking utensils, a frying pan is less likely to trigger the fire alarm and render the home uninhabitable. A wok is the best tool for making stir-fried meals, but it creates so much smoke that it will trigger the fire alarm every time use it. It's easy to cook stir-fry without a wok by heating some vegetable oil in a sauté pan, which most of us already have. Wok hei (or "wok air," as the literal translation would have it) is the secret to a successful stir-fry, and without it, the efforts would be futile.