Shindig:

 

another vote for cast iron! ... will last an eternity 

 

Till you drop it.

Something I've discovered over the years is that non-stick coatings don't like other pots, pans, or dishes being stacked on them, either on the bench or in the cupboard.  Since I've avoided doing that, and stored my best non-stick pan on its side, the coatings have lasted years longer.

My motto is don't stack anything, including plans and glass containers and jugs. You end up with chips, scratches etc. If designing a new kitchen make sure you have heaps of big drawers so eveything is single height and unstacked. Makes things so much easier. 

blackjack17:
Anyone have any recommendations? Not looking at crazy money but would prefer quality as it makes the cooking easier.

Batman:

Tefal from Briscoes. The higher end ones are bomb proof.

allio:

I don't bother with ceramic, it's really all the same stuff at the end of the day and in my experience the longevity is worse than plain old teflon.

jlittle:

Something I've discovered over the years is that non-stick coatings don't like other pots, pans, or dishes being stacked on them, either on the bench or in the cupboard.  Since I've avoided doing that, and stored my best non-stick pan on its side, the coatings have lasted years longer.

andrewNZ: I don't know if it's already been mentioned here, but if you don't put the frypan in the dishwasher it will be as non stick as a non stick pan without the risk of damage.

Also IME, tomato based foods tend to strip the pan as badly as a run through the dishwasher. Because of this, we now use the cast iron pan for most things, but stick to the stainless one for anything tomato based.

That might explain why my pans non-stick coating only last a year or so. I make a great dish with eggs, cheese, and tomato chilli beans which I cook very hot.

andrewNZ: I don't know if it's already been mentioned here, but if you don't put the frypan in the dishwasher it will be as non stick as a non stick pan without the risk of damage.

 

Kitchen knives (food-prep, not cutlery).

 

Stainless cookware.

 

Good-quality glassware.

 

And, obviously, utensils marked as not dishwasher-safe.

 

Scanpans are great, good choice.

We eventually swapped out our scanpan for enamelled cast iron (Le Creuset) and thats been pretty great too.

kiwiace:

Scanpans are great, good choice.

We eventually swapped out our scanpan for enamelled cast iron (Le Creuset) and thats been pretty great too.

allio:

 

Finally, get non-stick in 10" and 12". Use it only for stuff that really needs a non-stick surface (e.g. eggs, dumplings) and it will last for 2-3 years. But eventually it will need to be replaced anyway, so don't waste your money on top of the line ultra-premium stuff.

 

Just to revive this thread for a specific purpose: I'm sick to death of having dumplings stick so badly to the bottom of our fry pans we end up with nearly every dumpling missing their bottom (but a deliciously crunchy 'pancake' able to be scraped off!). We get the same results whether we use a cast iron or ceramic fry pan, and no matter how much or little oil we use on the bottom.

So are there really no other options to ensure dumplings don't stick other than a non-stick/Teflon-y type fry pan? Has anyone had luck cooking dumplings with pans made out of other material?

I want to get something that we may use only for dumplings (and perhaps eggs, which stick to the ceramic), so I guess it may well need to be non-stick if there are no other better options. (Interestingly, I checked out what Wellington's Willis St dumpling shop uses, and they were certainly all Teflon-type pans!)

We have a tawa (a flat fry pan used for cooking roti) that's cast iron but incredibly non-sticky; it seems to be treated in some way, but certainly not Teflon - can you get standard (sided) fry pans with a surface like this, and would they work for dumplings?

Thanks for any advice.