Asian High Heat

The terminology comes from an incident at a major retail store in Adelaide.

I was admiring the cooking items they had for sale at 30% off and upon questioning the lovely blue-eyed, fair haired lady shop assistant about Le Creuset roasting dishes and saucepans which I have intentions of using to make say, a roast, or even a casserole, was told that Le Creuset would last me a lifetime. She went on to tell me that it would prove quite useful for the way 'you asians' cook, because she has noticed in the past that asians like to use 'high heat' in 'your cooking', and considering Le Creusets' sturdy cast iron enamel covered saucepans are so tough, the chances of destroying it with my being asian, and using high heat in the kitchen was very unlikely.

As a glimmer of a smile shaking to a laugh started to break into my face, I wondered what reaction I would get if I expressed intentions of roasting a leg of lamb or even making a casserole. So I posed it. It is ostensibly true that I could use this particular 28cm Le Creuset saucepan with lid for all such purposes, and because she has one of her own, I'd be a wise man if I were to get nothing but Le Creuset cooking gear. Of course this would set me back something in the vicinity of $4000 for a mere 10 pans. She then went on to grab hold of a black anodized pan and proceeded to point at that at the 'Asian High Heat' these pans would not last, but a Le Creuset, well, it could very well replace my swiss army knife if needed.

I looked in the mirror when I got to work. It would appear that I am, in fact, asian.