Selecting Asian Restaurant Supplies for Your Commercial Kitchen

Commercial gas fryers often are used in Asian restaurant kitchens to produce foods such as tempura, crispy noodles, egg rolls, sweet and spicy chicken, and crab Rangoon. They can operate with natural gas or liquid propane, and some fryers can be modified on site to use either fuel type.

Tube type frypots, a type only available in gas fryers, are excellent multi-purpose fryers. If your menu includes a variety of fried food such as breaded, battered, and frozen items, a tube-type frypot may be the best choice. These frypots have a quick recovery time and can cook dense proteins such as bone-in chicken and breaded pork cutlets. On the other hand, the tube design makes them more difficult to clean than a flat-bottomed or open pot frypots, and they'll require adequate ventilation to discharge the intense heat produced by the burning gas.

In some locations, gas is more affordable than electricity, so if you'll run the fryer often and use it heavily, consider which option will be more affordable for your restaurant in the long run. To install and operate a gas fryer, your kitchen must have a gas line to supply fuel to the fryer.

No matter which fryer type you choose, consider how much breading and other crumbs will drop off the food into the fryer's vat as it cooks. Fryers with a deep cold zone absorb and store that sediment at the vat's deep bottom. By keeping these bits of food and breading away from the cooking zone, frypots with a deep cold zone help preserve the fresh taste of cooking fat longer.

Commercial electric fryers can produce all the same foods as gas fryers and often operate more efficiently. They also eliminate the danger of gas leaks because no gas is needed to heat them, and they vent less heat while operating. Some options feature heating elements that can be lifted out of the way easily for cleaning, simplifying maintenance. However, unlike a gas fryer, an electric fryer is affected by power outages, and there aren't as many frypot options available for this type of deep fryer.

If your menu includes battered items such as sweet and spicy chicken, tempura, or calamari, a flat bottomed frypot is a good option to choose. This frypot type is designed to let heavy battered or doughy foods sink down into the oil and then rise back up as they cook, without getting stuck. Excess batter that falls off food as it cooks can be removed from the oil easily with a long-handled skimmer, keeping the oil tasting fresh and clear of obstructions.

Flat bottomed frypots are available in both gas and electric fryers, and also make a good choice for frying egg rolls, tofu, and the small Chinese doughnuts often found on buffets. Flat bottomed fryers don't have a cold zone, however, so they're not the best choice for breaded items like fried chicken, korokke, and tonkatsu. Additionally, flat-bottomed fryers take longer to recover during periods of back-to-back cooking, so they're not the best choice for frying frozen food either.

Commercial and restaurant griddles can be powered by liquid propane, natural gas, or electricity, just like fryers. Teppanyaki griddles are especially useful for hibachi-style cooking and can grill vegetables, pork, chicken, rice, shrimp, and noodles quickly.

Ranging in width from 12 inches to 79 inches, griddles can serve as the main workhorse of a kitchen lineup or be used for small-scale frying and grilling. Many griddles have multiple heat zones with independent controls, enabling users to cook various foods simultaneously at different temperatures. Griddle plates can be made with cast iron, ceramic, chrome plating, composite material, nonstick coating, or steel.

If your menu features hibachi, stir-fry, or grilled meat and vegetable dishes, a teppanyaki griddle can be an efficient choice.

Commercial steamers can be used to cook seafood, buns, dumplings, and dim sum, while being great tools for quickly par-cooking vegetables before they're stir fried. Steamers also are good for cooking white rice – a staple dish served alongside many Asian dishes.

Steamers come in a few configurations, including portion steamers, pressure steamers, and high-volume steamers. They can be powered by gas or electricity and can be attached directly to the building's plumbing or refilled manually. Able to accommodate anywhere from 1 to 20 pans, steamers are available for any volume of production.

Commercial rice cookers can produce high volumes of perfectly cooked rice without burning, scorching, or drying it. Some rice cookers have holding capability, meaning they can hold cooked rice at a safe temperature and preserve optimal texture for hours at a time. Designed for simplicity, many models can be activated with the push of a button, leaving kitchen staff free to focus on other tasks as the rice cooks.

In addition to rice, these machines can be used to cook oatmeal, quinoa, risotto, rice pudding, curry dishes, split pea dal, polenta, boiled eggs, miso soup, and poached fruit.

Heated holding cabinets are designed to keep food at a safe, appetizing temperature until it's served. Often used at buffets and catered events, heated holding cabinets are good for storing hotel pans filled with food as they wait to be placed in a drop-in food well or steam table setup. Using this kind of cabinet, cooks can prepare pans of food ahead of time, having them hot and ready to go whenever the buffet needs refilling.

Hot holding cabinets come in half-height, three-quarters-height, undercounter, and full-height sizes. Some of them have adjustable pan slides to accommodate any depth of pan, while others have fixed slides. These cabinets can hold anywhere from 1 to 50 food pans per unit, offering options for any volume of output, from a small food court buffet to a 24-hour eatery on the Vegas strip.

Asian cooking utensils include such tools as wok shovels, mandarin strainers, fondue skimmers, Cantonese strainers, and long-handled serving spoons and turners.

When cooking with large pans such as woks and stock pots, using the right tool is vital to safe, effective cooking. When used for traditional cooking, woks get extremely hot. Asian cooking utensils often are made with long handles, enabling users to toss and stir food inside the deep pans without burning their hands. Wok shovels or wok turners usually are rounded on the end, making them perfect for stirring and scooping food in a round-bottomed wok.

Skimmers and strainers are good for lifting dumplings, wontons, noodles, fried meat, and poached eggs out of hot water or oil while letting excess liquid drain away.

Prep tables make it easy to keep sliced, chopped, minced, and julienned vegetables and meat organized and ready to grill on the hibachi. Also useful for sushi prep, these refrigerated tables keep a wide variety of ingredients within close reach of the rolling mats, chilled and ready to use. Many styles have lids that can be closed when the unit isn't used, conserving energy and keeping stored items cold.

Typically mounted on casters for mobility, most refrigerated prep tables are self-contained and don't require the purchase of a separate condenser. Many units have a refrigerated cabinet below the table where users can store extra ingredients, making it simple to refill the table's food pans when they start to run low.

Sushi display cases make it easy to merchandise prepared sushi and sashimi to guests while keeping the product chilled and shielded from airborne dust, hair, and germs. By keeping the sushi attractively displayed close to the customer's eyeline, the cases help promote sushi sales.

Typically available in black, white, or stainless steel, sushi cases can have self-contained or remote refrigeration. Because these cases are used in customer-facing applications, some restaurants choose a model with a remote condenser to exhaust hot air and noise away from the dining area, preserving quiet, relaxed atmospheres.

Japanese knives are designed for precision slicing, and tend to have thinner, harder blades than their alternatives, giving them a finer edge that stays sharp longer. Because of this, Japanese knives are excellent for detailed work, such as slicing sashimi and other delicate ingredients.

Their hard blades can get chipped easier than your typical workhorse kitchen knife, so they should be handled with care. For heavy work, such as high-volume chopping or butchering cuts of meat, a thick German knife may be a better choice.

Sushi boats and displays add unique flair to sushi presentation. For locations wanting to offer upscale or authentic experiences, serving food in decorative sushi displays can be a good choice. These displays can be made of wood, bamboo, porcelain, or melamine. For durability, bamboo and melamine are the best choices. Neither material is absorbent, making them less likely to retain bacteria after use, and many models can be cleaned safely in a dishwasher.

Sushi racks and platters, on the other hand, are designed with grooves that keep sushi rolls stable and stop them from falling off the tray, making them an excellent option for transporting orders from the kitchen to the table.

Boning knives are designed for breaking down whole chickens and other primal cuts of meat such as beef chuck, round, and flank, or pork loin, ham, and shoulder.

Constructed with varying degrees of stiffness, boning knives are suited for different applications. Stiff blades are good for breaking down large, tough cuts of meat, while thin, flexible blades are excellent for trimming fat, sinew, and cartilage away from meat before it's cooked.

Fillet knives are similar to boning knives, though typically thinner and more flexible for extremely precise cutting. As with boning knives, most fillet knives have an enlarged bolster to protect the user's fingers from slipping down onto the blade as they work.

Fillet knives typically are used to remove bones from fish and other delicate cuts of meat. Fillet knives are useful for removing fish heads, fins, and skin without damaging the meat. These thin, flexible knives also can be employed when carving decorative cuts into meat, fruit, and garnishes, adding extra visual appeal to meals.

Chef's knives are multipurpose knives that can be used for many different tasks including chopping, slicing, and dicing meat, fruit, and vegetables. In most kitchens, chef's knives are used more frequently and for a wider variety of tasks than any other knife.

These knives usually measure anywhere from 6 to 12 inches long and are constructed with a stiff, strong blade that tapers to a sharp point. Their handles can be made of wood, plastic, or rubber, and they can have a full tang or rivets for added strength.

Knife sets often contain several tools, including knives, kitchen shears, a honing steel, and a wooden storage block or cloth storage bag. A knife set can be a good way to cover all your bases and provide a selection of knives for kitchen staff, as well as some accessories for their care and upkeep. Many knife sets come at a slight discount when compared to individual knife purchases, so if you need to stock up on several types of knives, knife sets may be the most cost-effective option.

Some knife sets include just steak knives, a type of knife that's used at the table to cut cooked meat into bite-sized pieces for easy consumption. If your restaurant serves steak, pork chops, or other large cuts of meat, you should invest in some steak knives so customers can cut up their food as they eat.

Butcher knives work hand in hand with boning knives to break down large cuts of meat. Whereas boning knives are thinner and designed for cutting deftly around bones, butcher knives are larger and stronger, taking on the heavy work of breaking down a carcass. Butcher knives tend to have a thick, strong spine and blade, helping them withstand heavy cutting.

Also useful for skinning beef and pork, some butcher knives have a curved blade that slips easily between the skin and meat as they're separated. Many butcher knives have a small bolster or no bolster, enabling them to fit snugly into tight spaces around joints without catching or dragging on the meat.

Similar to chef's knives, santoku knives are general-purpose knives that are used often and for a wide variety of tasks. Unlike a chef's knife, the santoku's spine curves down to meet the blade, giving it a blunt, sheepsfoot tip. Because of their unique shape, these knives enable a straight, up-and-down chopping motion, unlike the rocking motion used with chef's knives.

Often, these knives feature grooves along the blade that prevent food from sticking to the knife as it's chopped and sliced; many of them don't have a bolster. Santokus are designed for balance, reducing wrist fatigue during repetitive chopping tasks. They're useful for chopping, dicing, and mincing various meats, fruits, and vegetables.

Due to their heavy, square shapes, cleavers come in handy for heavy-duty chopping and butchering where the user cuts straight through bone and cartilage. They're also extremely useful for breaking down fruit and squash with thick, tough rinds, such as cantaloupe, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, honeydew melon, and pineapple.

Cleavers usually are much heavier than other kitchen knives and are designed that way on purpose. When chopping through tough food, the cleaver's weight does most of the work, meaning the user exerts less force as they bring the knife down through thick meat and vegetables.

Although cleavers are visually similar to Nakiri knives, they aren't exactly the same. Cleavers are thicker, stronger, and withstand the heaviest meat-, bone-, and tendon-chopping tasks, whereas Nakiri knives are a bit thinner and more precise, designed specifically for fruit and vegetable preparation.

Woks and stir fry pans are designed with wide, deep, circular bowls that can be used to stir fry, saute, deep fry, boil, and poach food items. Because of their curved shape, they resist warping better than flat-bottomed pans – a good quality for high-temperature frying and grilling. They can have one stick handle or dual looped handles, and may be made of cast iron, stainless steel, carbon steel, or aluminum. Useful for fast, intense cooking methods, such as stir frying, woks can reach high temperatures during use, often being used to toss and flip food as it cooks for even searing.

Wok utensils keep the user's hands and face away from the intense heat of the wok during cooking. Usually constructed with extra-long handles, wok utensils are perfect for reaching all areas of these deep, wide pans. Wok shovels are flat and have gently rounded tips that prove useful for scraping food away from the pan's rounded sides. Perforated wok ladles often are used to scoop dumplings out of boiling water or oil, while solid ladles can be used to portion out bowls of soup. A long-handled rice scoop can come in handy, especially when scooping fried rice out of the wok.

Wok brushes are designed to scrub away stuck-on food residue gently from the wok's surface without compromising the pan's seasoning. Most woks are made of carbon steel or cast iron, so they rely on a layer of polymerized oil to coat the pan's surface, protecting it from rust and creating a natural nonstick surface.

A good layer of seasoning can take months or even years to develop, so wok brushes help cooks get the wok clean without scraping off any of this prized surface protectant.

Wok rings stabilize round-bottomed woks when placed atop a flat burner. Although woks are usually lifted, tossed, and shaken during stir frying, they're also used to braise, boil, poach, and saute food. When used for these purposes, a wok must remain stable. Placing a wok ring between the wok and burner supports the heavy pan and keeps it steady as the user cooks. Wok rings can measure anywhere from 8 to 16 inches in diameter and have the added benefit of concentrating the burner's heat on the wok's base. Wok rings can be used with electric or gas burners and typically are made of stainless steel.

Asian dinnerware tends to have bold colors, such as black, blue, gold, red, and white. Some plates feature intricate patterns, while others stick to simple, solid colors. Available in melamine and porcelain options, this dinnerware category also includes Asian dinnerware bowls, sake bottles and sake cups, and a variety of small sauce dishes for holding soy sauce, ponzu sauce, wasabi, and other sauces and garnishes.

For minimalistic, modern, or upscale vibes, some Asian dinnerware is made of white porcelain or melamine with no decorations and square sides. Soup spoons in this category often look unique, too, being formed with a large, oblong bowl and short, curved handle.

Disposable food containers make it simple for eateries to pack freshly cooked meat, rice noodles, and vegetables. Being highly affordable, disposable food containers are great for packaging takeaway orders without adding significant cost to the dish. These containers can be made of polystyrene, plastic, or aluminum, and come in various sizes to fit entrees, sides, and desserts.

Polystyrene containers are cheap, lightweight, and keep food insulated a little better than other options. However, they're not very durable and don't close tightly, so they might leak. Plastic takeout containers usually are microwave safe and more leak resistant than polystyrene options, making them a good choice for delivery orders that are likely to be transported in a moving vehicle. Aluminum containers are durable, spill resistant, and can be reheated in an oven; however, they're not good for microwave use.

Takeout and to-go supplies don't end with to-go containers and takeout boxes. Restaurants also need to supply napkins, disposable flatware, chopsticks, and any other eating accessory needed for easy food consumption.

Food basket liners can be used in house as well as for delivery and to-go orders. Placing a food basket liner inside a to-go container helps absorb excess grease from fried foods, preventing them from getting soggy quickly and helping preserve the food's texture as it travels to its destination. These liners also streamline cleanup for reusable dishes and baskets in house, creating a barrier to shield the dish from grease, salt, and sauce buildup. After use, the liner can be removed and disposed of for simple cleanup.

Stock pots are useful for preparing high volumes of noodles, wontons, and soup. At restaurants where pho, miso soup, or ramen is sold, stock pots come in handy for preparing and holding several gallons of hot broth daily. For locations that specialize in noodle dishes, stock pots can be used with pasta baskets to prepare several different orders simultaneously in the same pot.

Because of its size, a stock pot typically is the best tool for making stock and broth. Usually requiring sizeable chunks of vegetables and bones, as well as several gallons of water, making stock and broth requires a large-capacity container that's centered over the heat source for even heating. Most other pots and pans aren't able to accommodate a substantial enough volume of product for stock, broth, and soup production; many are too wide to heat several gallons of liquid efficiently.

Tea brewers can be automatic or pourover units designed to produce several gallons of tea per day, or they can be small, self-contained teapots meant to steep the hot beverage right at the customer's table. Many Asian restaurants use teapots, tea infusers, and tea presses to brew fresh green tea whenever a customer orders it. The delicate flavor of green tea and jasmine tea easily can become bitter if it gets overheated or is stored for too long, so making small batches is more cost effective and produces better product flavor.

Many locations also use automated tew brewers to make iced tea, a beverage that's popular throughout the American South. Some tea brewers include a hot water dispenser, enabling operators to fill a teapot or brew a single cup of tea without any wait.

Commercial tea brewers can be automatic, meaning they're plumbed directly into the building's water supply, or pourover, meaning they'll need to be refilled manually to keep brewing tea. Automatic machines require less attention and labor from the user; however, they also can be more difficult and expensive to install, and can't be picked up or relocated like a pourover unit.

Colanders are a vital part of any kitchen, useful for draining away extra water from cooked noodles, potatoes, and vegetables. They're also excellent for washing and rinsing food before it's prepared, such as fruit, lettuce, cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, and beans.

Colanders can be made of aluminum or stainless steel and come in a few different sizes. Some colanders are built with a base and handles, while Chinese-style colanders lack these features. Many colanders can double as a steamer basket when paired with an appropriately sized pot.

No matter what type of food is prepared, all kitchens should include a colander as part of their prep supplies.

Dim sum steamers are specially designed for preparing all types of dumplings and buns. Usually made of bamboo, these steamers can have one or more chambers, enabling users to steam different foods at the same time. Some units are stackable, meaning cooks can layer multiple cooking chambers for efficient steaming. Some dim sum steamers are made of stainless steel or polypropylene, both of which are easier to clean and sanitize than traditional bamboo.

Steamers cook food more gently than frying or boiling, imbuing a delicate flavor and texture that enhances fish, shrimp, and vegetables in addition to dumplings and buns. Because it cooks at such a high temperature, steam often cooks food quicker than other methods, leading users to par-cook menu items with steam to cut down on frying, baking, and broiling times.

A mortar and pestle can be used for grinding fresh herbs and spices, releasing a strong flavor for food and sauces. Many Asian restaurants choose to prepare their own spice blends and curry pastes; a mortar and pestle is a great way to do that. Instead of chopping the spices with a blender or food processor blade, a mortar and pestle grinds and tears product, releasing a more intense aroma and flavor than most other types of food processors.

These kitchen tools can be made of marble or stainless steel and come in different sizes for small, medium, or large batch spice grinding.

Chinois strainers, also known as China cap strainers, have a sturdy, reinforced shape that resists bending and warping. Available with coarse, fine, and extra-fine mesh, chinois strainers are excellent for straining broth, soup, puree, and sauce. By removing all lingering solids, the strainer leaves behind a smooth consistency without seeds, bone fragments, or lumps.

Because of their sturdy design, cooks can use a wooden spoon or spatula to press out the last bit of liquid from ingredients inside the strainer. Chinois strainers usually are made of stainless steel or aluminum; many models are dishwasher safe. For stability during use, most models are constructed with a hook on one side, enabling the strainers to be placed securely atop a stock pot, mixing bowl, or pan.