You found us! We are a family of four (Bill & Judy, and daughters Sarah & Kaitlin), and The Woks of Life is our way of sharing our recipes & travels with each other and the world.
What began in 2013 as a quest to document our family’s history through food has become a robust online community. Since then, our blog has been recognized as the online authority on Chinese cooking in English!
Whether you’re:
- A food lover interested in going beyond Cream Cheese Wontons and Sesame Chicken…
- A college student with a drawer full of wrinkled take-out menus and only rudimentary knowledge of how to boil an egg…
- Or just someone looking to make weeknight dinners a little more interesting…
You’ve come to the right place!
Allow us to quickly introduce ourselves:
- Judy (the family matriarch) regularly scours Chinese cookbooks for new ideas and wants to keep traditional recipes alive for new generations of home cooks.
- Bill (the patriarch) grew up working and cooking in restaurants, including years of experience at his own parents’ Chinese takeout joint, which is why you can be sure our American Chinese takeout recipes are legit!
- Sarah and Kaitlin are millennials who grew up cooking from a young age, learning from grandparents, their very cool parents, and of course, food TV.
Judy
Bill
Sarah
Kaitlin
The fact that we all cook can admittedly lead to the odd kitchen squabble. But we bond over and overanalyze our food, think about what to make for dinner before lunch is over, and are relentless about perfecting our favorite dishes.
The Beginnings of The Woks of Life
The Woks of Life was born in 2013, when half of our group (the parental half) relocated to Beijing. Kaitlin was in college stateside, and Sarah began moving between both China and the U.S. whilst figuring out the meaning of post-college life.
Between all the plane rides and intermittent Skype conversations, it became difficult to stay up-to-date on all our day-to-day comings and goings, let alone what we were each preparing for dinner.
We also realized that the kid-parent separation led to said kids eating a lot less of the Chinese food normally served up by said parents.
Because let’s face it…though the two daughters of this family could make restaurant-quality thin crust pizza like nobody’s business, they hadn’t exactly been studying up on dishes usually left to the older generation.
Our solution? This website and blog, where we could share recipes, kitchen exploits, and travels.
We’ve kept it going ever since, even now that we’re all back in the U.S. Our recipes represent our own culinary genealogy, from the simple to complex, the traditional to the reinvented.
So take a look around. Pour a beverage and find tonight’s meal. Pick up some travel tips, wok shopping advice, or an explanation of what the heck Chinese black vinegar is.
(It’s the nectar of the gods, is what it is.)
Happy Wokking!
Want to know more? Check out our bios here:
The Woks of Life Family Bios
Bill: Dad/Husband
Grew up in upstate New York, working through high school and college in restaurants with his father, a chef. Rose from modest beginnings as a Burger King sandwich assembler to Holiday Inn busboy and line cook, to cooking at the family’s Chinese restaurant, while also learning the finer points of Cantonese cooking from his immigrant parents. Specializes in all things Cantonese and American Chinese takeout.
Judy: Mom/Wife
Born in Shanghai, and arrived in the U.S. at age 16. Pretty much a boss when it comes to languages, being fluent in both English and three separate Chinese dialects. And boy, can she fold a spring roll (the rest of ours tend to just fall apart. It’s sad). Plus, she’s the only one in the family who’s actually good at reading Chinese, so she’s our professional menu-translator when we’re eating our way through China.
Sarah: Daughter/Older Sister
Born and raised in the Garden State, growing up on episodes of Ready Set Cook and Iron Chef. Writer, photographer, marketing professional, and daydreamer, with a penchant for Quick and Easy recipes that take less than 20 minutes to make. Like the rest of the family, she loves the outdoors and writing delightfully detailed posts about the Art of Cooking Outside.
Kaitlin: Daughter/Younger Sister
Notoriously unable to follow a recipe (usually preferring to freestyle it), Kaitlin’s the family artist, chunky-sweater-obsessed knitter, and keeper of an unreasonably detailed knowledge bank of Korean pop music. The master of all things sauces and condiments on the blog (her chili oil is legendary) and steward of our drool-worthy Instagram account.
Photo credit: Sarah Yeoman
What a lovely family! Thank you for your website and I look forward to learning new things.
It’s wonderful to be able to try food in different regions of China and really get to know a certain cuisine. I am Mexican American and would love to explore Mexico in this way.
I love Chinese food since 1980s. I have been trying to replicate egg rolls that I used to get at my hometown restaurant China Delight. The ownership changed and the food is still delicious there but I am now in the United Kingdom. Even at China Delight, however, the egg rolls now taste like the ones in the grocers freezer. Perhaps for efficiency but I feel that those egg rolls were a meal in themselves.
Those egg rolls in the 80s were special and delicious. I don’t know what ingredients were used but big and lots of filling. I remember cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, salt, pepper and small bits of shrimp.
Their beef was fork tender and still is. I know the menu used to list Mandarin, Szechuan and Cantonese dishes and I just thought boy they really know what their doing.
Still on my quest for what I now call the 1980s egg roll. I can’t wait to find it. I will pre make them and freeze them and never run out.
Hi Leslie, thank you so much for your kind comment! We are so happy you found our site. Not sure of how that exact egg roll you remember tasted, but you can try our old school takeout egg roll recipe here: https://thewoksoflife.com/takeout-egg-rolls/. This is how my dad’s parents used to make egg rolls in their restaurant in the late 80s/early 90s.
I would like to learn more about Cantonese style cooking. Thank you.
You’re in luck, Patricia! We have many Cantonese recipes, as my dad’s side of the family is Cantonese! You can just search the term “cantonese” in our search bar to pull up some favorites!
Love this site, I had always wanted to try Asian cooking. I had gotten good at Italian, American, some French but was never able to get the taste right, now because of your site, everything is great. The only problem is that every time I had gotten good at a particular genre, my wife says we can’t go to that type of restaurant anymore and she just added Chinese to that list! I saw you were from upstate NY, what region is that? I lived all over upstate NY until we moved to CA.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Mike, though we’re sorry you’re not allowed to go out to Chinese restaurants anymore haha! (My dad grew up in the Catskills—Liberty, NY).
Just found you guys!! so happy to add this to my interest and attempts at making Asian cuisine! I love the family affair!!
Thank you so much, Kate! Glad you found us as well!
Hello. I have been almost obsessed with your website for the last few months. I am a Caucasian living in South China with my family. I finally took the plunge this week and made your lotus moon cakes. It was epic but totally worth it. Have also made heaps from your Cantonese bakery selection as well as lots of steamed dishes and a few stir fries. Your recipes are so so so well put together – so authentic and I can spend hours getting lost on your site. It is so much fun and you have given lots of joy.
So happy to hear that! Those mooncakes are a big accomplishment!