Just thought of sharing with you this clever idea I read from Cyndi’s blog. For Asian cooking aficionados like me, I would probably substitute the herbs with coriander, cilantro, Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, etc.

This makes for a good gift idea! Don’t you think? Or a DIY marvel! Customise the herbs you want in your pot. But if I were you, I would suggest putting name tags. I can easily confuse one herb for the other.
Image credit: www.harryanddavid.com

Are you done Christmas-shopping yet? Have you any friends you haven’t shopped for yet who love cooking Chinese food? Or are you about to start the new year by trying your hand at cooking Chinese dishes? Well then, I found just the site for you. These essential cooking tools might just interest you:
1. Wok Spatula
The spatula normally used in Asian cooking is larger than a regular spatula, shaped very much like a child’s toy shovel. It’s ideal for stirring and mixing food in the wok.
2. Chinese Wire/Mesh Skimmer Strainer
A popular Chinese cooking tool, this mesh strainer with a long bamboo …read more

When I saw this Nintendo ad on TV, I was so amazed at how the Cooking Guide could change the way we look at cooking, literally — i.e. from the conventional cookbook to this handheld computer gadget! Believe it or not, it may just turn anyone into an instant chef. No one’s ever going to be afraid to step foot on the kitchen again (and the hubby starts to get uncomfortable! haha!).I think, this latest technology can be likened to people preferring to watch TV rather than read a book. Here’s why:1. From 245+ recipes, you can browse by country, …read more

I think Chesu has worked out what these seriously big cooking implements are all about:
“They’re Godzilla-sized coffee stir sticks!
I can just imagine Godzilla and Gamera, enjoying a cup of coffee and giving pointers to the thing from Cloverfield…”
 I think I have the same picture in my mind as you do Chesu.
 I’ll email you to get a postal address so I can drop a tube of wasabi in the post along with an extra challenge. 
Thanks
 Tom

As I mentioned yesterday, I found a new kitchen ware shop called Oritomo the other day and this is one thing that intrigued me.  What are these guys?  I am assuming they could be for scooping rice or mixing dough.  But I thought I’d run a little competition again to see who could come up with the best creative solution.
 They are about 1.2m long (4 foot) and are made of fine grained hard wood so they probably weigh about 5 kilograms each.  They are in a kitchen ware shop but don’t let that limit your imagination.
The best idea in before 7th …read more

I just found a new kitchen ware supplier near my place in Tsukuba.  Oritomo is a specialist supplier to commercial kitchens but they are also happy to sell to home kitchens like mine.
The shop is absolutely loaded with everything from disposable containers and presentation gear to the finest of knives and ceramics.  They have the most ridiculously over-sized everything as well as more standard sized equipment and I found their prices to be close to half of the fashionable home kitchen shops in town.
All we came home with were two big bread tins and a rice scoop but I can …read more

Tell me if I am behind the times here, but I think this is pretty cool.  It is a silicon cooking brush that my wife brought home from Tokyo last week.  Instead of having difficult to clean cotton or meltable nylon bristles, this one is guaranteed to survive a serious stir frying without even flinching.  I use it to spread oil or a sauce around a hot pan but I’m sure it has other uses too. Is this new technology?  Or am I just out of touch?

A rare but important statistic that measures the quality of food is chopstick breakage.  As far as I can tell, whenever a chopstick gets broken during a meal, it is because the meal is so good and engrossing that the eater loses control and chomps too early or late.  I am sure there are other measures of wonderful eating.  Can you think of any,
Last night was one of those occasions.  We lost a good chopstick to that meal.  My wife got carried away with the food and all of a sudden it was the sound of splintering wood and flailing …read more

I expected a fair bit of incompatibility when I moved from Australia to Japan.  I expected to find difficulties with the language, the customs and even the relationships.  But I didn’t expect to have to confront incompatible food sizes.
I guess I was asking for it.  On the weekend I got a pizza from a Costco outlet.  Fir those who don’t know, Costco is an American warehouse style store that sells things cheap, but unfortunately also quite American size. 
When I tried to cook the pizza at home I found that it wasn’t even coming close to fitting in my oven.  I …read more

I took a holiday that involved a shinkansen bullet train journey last week.  On the platform I grabbed the nicest looking obento to eat on the way.  By chance I stumbled on a self heating beef obento.
The deal is, you pull a string that is sticking out of the cardboard box and after 7 minutes of steam and heat, your obento is ready.
It all relies on the chemical block that sits under the plastic tray of food.  Apparently ripping out the cord, activates a chemical reaction which generates enough heat to almost burn your lips. 
Very handy, very cool and very …read more