Who cares about the Golden Globe Awards when there's the Golden Wok Award!

Who cares about the Golden Globe Awards when there is the more prestigious Golden Wok Award?

It all started as a text thread among my cousins on what everyone was bringing to my annual family Christmas potluck dinner. My 14-year-old said he would make his famous spam fried rice (hey, don't judge, it's an Asian thing, lol). The next thing I knew, it became a spam fried rice "throw down" between my son and two of my male cousins.

One thing you need to know, my side of the family are good cooks, stemming from my mom's generation. My mom and her siblings would go out and eat at a new restaurant. I would roll my eyes as they picked apart every dish, analyzing the ingredients, and discussing what could make the dish better. So I guess I wasn't totally surprised when someone suggested a cook-off.

It was funny, at one point, wagyu beef and truffle oil were brought up as possible "add ins". Quickly, I put a stop to that. Of course, being me, I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if I make a medal for the winner! How about a mini wok?! And we can start a new tradition and do a cook-off every Christmas and pass the medal around to the winner of the year". Hence, the Golden Wok Award was born.

On the day of the dinner, we served all three entries in identical bowls and numbered them. Everyone put their vote on a little piece of paper and put it "in the hat". I even put the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on each paper plate so people don't get confused about which one they ate (they all look similar!).

Guess what, my 14-year-old won by a landslide. No recount needed, no tempering with the papers, no fraud.

Well, I didn't get a chance to make the golden wok until yesterday, a week after the New Year. It was fun to make something different. Maybe I should make a spatula to go with it 😜

Here is a photo of the happy winner. Yes, he is a chip from the old mom-block. Silly goose.

We have not decided what the theme of the cook-off is for next year. Maybe we will even throw in a cash prize, LOL!

Do you have a fun holiday tradition? I'd love to know.