KITCHEN PRACTICE 1 — Rock-Chop Mincing & Transferring with the Flat of the Blade
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Chapter: Chinese Cookery 2 — The Cleaver & Chinese Knife Skills

TASK
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Rock-chop mince a clove of garlic and a small piece of ginger with
the cleaver, then use the flat of the blade to scoop and transfer
both into a small bowl.

WHAT TO DO
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1. Peel a clove of garlic and a small knob of ginger.
2. Using the pinch grip on the cleaver and a claw guiding hand,
   rock-chop mince the garlic — tip staying roughly in contact with
   the board, heel rising and falling, walking the blade across the
   pile.
3. Repeat the same rock-chop motion on the ginger.
4. Once both are finely minced, tilt the cleaver and slide its flat
   side under the garlic pile, lifting it directly into a small
   bowl without using your other hand to scrape it in.
5. Repeat the same transfer for the ginger, into the same bowl.

WHAT TO EXPECT
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- The rock-chop motion should feel smooth and repetitive once you
  find the right rhythm — tip down, heel up and down, small steps
  across the pile — rather than a series of separate, disconnected
  chops.
- Using the flat of the blade as a scoop should transfer the minced
  pile cleanly, with only a small amount left behind on the board
  that a quick second pass can pick up.
- If pieces keep falling off the sides of the blade during the
  transfer, try tilting the cleaver slightly less steeply, or moving
  a little more slowly.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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Practising the mince and the transfer together, rather than as two
separate skills, is what actually makes this technique useful in
real cooking — Chapter 5's own fast stir-frying doesn't give you
time to fumble ingredients from board to pan by hand once the wok is
hot. Building the scoop-and-transfer habit here, in a low-pressure
setting, means it's already second nature once real speed genuinely
matters.