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the cornstarch treatment of proteins is called "velveting", it does not require oil. It is often performed in hot water or stock.

and thanks engmcmuffin for the very clear info re: "marinating".

But, in my personal experience, the sides of a conventional wok are not for cooking. The shape concentrates the heat in the small area in the bottom. When cooking different ingredients together, add the longest cooking, when it's time to add the next item, push the first stuff up the sides and put the next ingredient into the "hot spot" to come to cooking temperature, then toss with prior item; push all up the sides and repeat. A new item wouldn't "hit the un-oiled sides": 1) it's kind of dangerous to toss or dump food into hot oil, and 2) there's already stuff on the cooler sides.

That's the second reason why non-stick woks are an absurd item marketed to people who shouldn't be using a wok. The most important reason is that non-stick coating gives off toxic fumes when heated to the temperatures that stir-frying requires--yes, a wok has many functions, but 99 & 44/100% of people who would buy a non-stick wok would want them for stir-frying, at least part of the time.

@ChiChi, thanks for clarifying yourself. I don't know how it all works scientifically, but your explanation sounds good to me.

@FP, I'm guessing you're not going to be so keen on the passing-through technique since it uses to much oil? I'm going to venture a guess that your sticking issues have to do with proportions?
This is just me, but when i marinate something Chinese, its not really 'soaking'. Its more like... adding seasonings to raw meat and letting it sit. This includes salt, pepper, oil, soy sauce and cornstarch, plus whatever extras. Altogether, the marinade is pretty dry. I don't use much cornstarch, though. In my mind's eye, the meat doesn't end up being particularly... white, as you would see if you were battering/coating with cornstarch. There isnt enough that the meat is.. dripping when you put it in the wok.
Next time, try using less cornstarch, or perhaps letting it drain a bit before stir-frying.

Another random thought: If you're not using much oil, make sure it swirl the wok after the oil heats, before you add in your ingredients. Since woks have sloped sides, the oil will pool, so the surface area thats slick will be small. Then when you add in your ingredients, they'll hit the un-oiled sides and end up sticking.

I'm hoping this is all coherent enough for you to understand. I've been stir-frying for a number of years, so sometimes it just comes naturally. It helps that I learned from just watching my mom. But it makes it harder to explain since i dont really follow a set of 'instructions'. It also doesn't help that its like.. 2:30 am.....

Simon, I'm not positive as to which culinary myth you're referring, but I do understand that SEARING does not "seal in the juices" of a meat, or make it more tender, contrary to popular opinion.

However, deep frying is a different issue. Oil is hydrophobic, so water will naturally want to stay in the meat, whether or not you have a coating. BUT, when you provide the cornstarch coating, it's just that much harder for the water to escape.

Has anyone tried to deep fry w/o a batter? When I very stupidly did that for my pigs' tails, the tails exploded because water escaped due to the extreme heat. Cornstarch, or flour, really would have helped.

With regards to your examples:
"ever had a piece of dried out fried chicken that had a nice thick crunchy coating? Or dry rubbery Chinese fried pork or chicken (sweet and sour, general tso etc.)?"

I'm not suggesting that cornstarch provides an ironclad coating around the oil. You're certainly correct that if you overcook something, it will be tough regardless of coating. However, cornstarch will drastically reduce the EXTENT to which the water escapes. If we observe food going into the oil, there will be tiny bubbles around it, which is the result of the water reacting with the oil. Without cornstarch, the bubbles are larger and more violent.

If it's a diction issue, I am certainly open to saying, "cornstarch helps to trap the juices in the meat," as opposed to "seal."

You can also use tapioca starch. Does the same thing.

@littlepaperheart, you might not be taking the temperature high enough if it isnt thickening. Cornstarch thickens right under the boiling temperature of water. I did consider maybe it had to do with the acidity of the ragout. But if you made a sweet and sour sauce, and it worked out fine... it's probably not that. Whats do you use in your ragout?

@simon, those instances you noted don't involve cornstarch coating. In the above description, the cornstarch isn't meant as a batter for deep-frying. It's part of the marinade and it DOES make a difference, if you do it right. I don't know the mechanics of why it works, but it does.

I work a couple times a week at a Barnes and Noble cafe, and we serve mostly Starbucks products and use their recipes. However, I always ask if people want their teas or iced coffee sweetened. Automatically sweetening just seems like bad service to me. And I really should try an iced Americano. Never had one.

While the official Starbucks recipes are national, people's expectations of how coffee should come are highly regional. Here in PA, black coffee means without sugar, but just across the river in NJ (even in a border town like Phillipsburg) places that don't have separate condiment bars will add sugar to "black coffee" unless you say "no sugar." And they'll add milk too, if you just say "coffee." Over there people drink milk, so Starbucks baristas offer "room for milk," and here it's "room for cream" by which they meant what in Jersey is called Half-and-Half. (And never go against the flow - here the Half-and-Half pitchers constantly get emptied and replaced, while the whole milk sits out as long as allowed - 4 hours - or longer. In NJ the reverse is true.)

@starbreiz and lovetobake: I was able to find them at the grocery store here in Tartu, Estonia; they were shipped from Brasil. So, not a locavore-approved meal, I admit, but delicious nonetheless. If you can't find figs, this is definitely a recipe to tuck away for the summertime.

This salad looks amazing! Very similar to an unbelievable salad I recently had at Black Lab Bistro. You can read about it at http://pleasurablepalate.typepad.com/
It is the Proscuitto that makes it! Yum!

I've had the powdered stuff--my friend's grandmother brought it from Peru--and it's really good. I'd love to try the homemade stuff, though.

@bingsy - the point madball made is still valid. Vegans are hypocrites - unless they're personally growing and harvesting every vegetable, how can they claim that their diet doesn't cause any suffering? These idiotic vegan zealots are whiny crybabies with no sense of perspective who feel like pushing their guilt trip about being at the top of the food chain on us.

@bingsy - Thanks for this point. Respecting the beliefs of others - however foreign - when it comes to food is something that we all need to work on.

@madball911 - Your "fossil fuels" non-point is a lot like when my dad used to jokingly say "but what about all the innocent vegetables that died to make your salad??" - that is, mocking and not valid. Fossils aren't exploited, since they've been dead for millions of years. There is no industry that produces animals and processes them so that their fossils will become fuel.

If you shared the same beliefs as people who become vegans do, their choice not to use animal products wouldn't sound "extreme." I almost never go out to eat, and it seems "extreme" to me that many of my friends spend $30-$50 a day eating every meal at a restaurant. But to them, my practice of spending the time to make all my food seems "extreme." Neither of us is right or wrong - we just have difference practices and beliefs about our diets.