Fresh ingredients make the best dishes. The flavor and texture is better, and the food is healthier.

For the best flavor and texture, you want fresh, crisp vegetables going into the wok. Older vegetables that are limp but not spoiled can be used in a stew or other dish where they will be cooked down.

You want fresh seafood, shellfish, and meat to avoid becoming ill, or having a dish with spoiled flavor. Spoiled seafood and shellfish can cause food poisoning.

Fresh shellfish should be live

Avoid dead shellfish (unless they are frozen or precooked). Lobster, crab, and clams should still be live when cooked. Fresh shrimp is usually flash-frozen, unless you are near the seacoast, and is usually sold as frozen, whole, uncooked shrimp. Sometimes it is processed beforehand, sold as “peeled,” or “peeled and de-veined.”

NOTE: When buying frozen seafood to add to a recipe/, especially shrimp and squid, be sure it was not cooked before freezing. If you buy cooked seafood, and then add it to your wok, it may come out tough and overcooked. (Eating overcooked squid is like trying to chew a rubber band.)