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

Post from: Blisstree

From garden to kitchen

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 handle is very useful for removing deep-fried or steamed foods from the wok.

3. 3 Piece Bamboo Steamer Set
Steaming is the third major Chinese cooking technique. Like stir-frying and deep-frying, steaming is normally done with a wok. The bamboo baskets fit inside the wok, and can be stacked, allowing you to steam more than one dish at a time. These baskets are 10-inches wide, and can be used with a wok that is 12 inches or larger.

4. Cooking Chopsticks
Long cooking chopsticks are extremely handy for maneuvering food while it’s cooking in a wok, or separating strands of boiling noodles. These cooking chopsticks are 15 inches long and made of bamboo.

5. Soy Sauce Dispenser Bottle
Once you’ve gained a bit of experience and can estimate amounts such as one teaspoon or two tablespoons, try storing sauces in these glass bottles. Just pour out as much as is needed. This saves having to constantly wash up measuring spoons. Of course, you can also use it to serve soy sauce at the table.

6. Deep Fry Thermometer
For cooks who do their deep-frying in a wok, a deep-fry thermometer is very useful for determining oil temperature. Made by Camp Chef, this stainless steel thermometer registers temperatures up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit. A handy feature is the clamp which allows you to fasten the thermometer to the side of the wok instead of holding it.

7. Wok Brush
Made of thin strips of bamboo, a wok brush (also called a cleaning whisk) is excellent for cleaning a carbon steel wok without damaging its seasoned surface. This wok brush is 11 inches long.

Source: http://chinesefood.about.com

Happy shopping!

Post from: Blisstree

Christmas gift ideas for the chef in you

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, ingredients, difficulty, cooking time, cooking technique or even calorie count;
2. If you’re out of ingredients, just tap away and a shopping list will be generated for you. What’s more, it can appropriately determine the quantity of ingredients you need by the number of people you’re cooking for;
3. You get to watch a live cooking demonstration and if you didn’t grasp the last step, just say “repeat” and it will be explained again. Yup! You can use voice commands, especially when your hands are tied, dirty or greasy. Otherwise, you can navigate via the touch-screen.

If all these sound familiar to you, please feel free to share us your experience using the Guide. I could sure use a second opinion before I head for the electronics store.

Post from: Blisstree

Has Nintendo disposed of the cookbook?

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

Post from: Blisstree

The mystery revealed

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 June 2008 will receive, in the post, a tube of wasabi that will bring tears to your eyes.  Please leave your ideas as comments below, and remember that if your comment doesn’t show up straight away, then it will probably be there in a day or two.

Post from: Blisstree

Mystery equipment

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 guarantee that I’ll be heading back there soon, even if it is just to gaze in wonder.

Post from: Blisstree

Oritomo kitchen supplies

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?

Post from: Blisstree

Silicon cooking brush

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 sticks.  What were we eating?  Stay tuned.

Post from: Blisstree

The eating statistics

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 decided that I would think about the issue for a while, so I tried to jamb it into my fridge but had the same problem.  My oven and my fridge are “family” size in Japan, but I’m afraid not big enough for American food.

Does anyone in Japan have equipment big enough to deal with this sort of food without cutting it up?  I don’t think so.  Does Costco realize this?  Probably not.

Post from: Blisstree

Conventions on Culinary Compatibility

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 wasteful.  I enjoyed it but the environment can’t afford too many of these things.

Post from: Blisstree

Self Heating Obento