All Activity

How do you like the Gesshins? I'm interested in those. The shop is mysterious about the steel used for the stainless versions, but I'm inclined to trust them.

1. Do you ever sharpen a vegetable peeler? The peeler remains sharp because the blade never touch anything else except food. They get dull. I don't sharpen them because I don't know how. And the best ones I've ever used (Kuhn Rikon Y-peelers) are so cheap I just get a new 3-pack once a year or so. 2. Sushi chefs have razer sharp knives because they use good knife skills. If you watch carefully, the main part of the bade never touch the cutting board when they cut. That's why they can have such sharp knives. They're sharp in the first place because they're single-bevel blades with a very acute bevel angle; they're made with fine-grained steel (almost always low-alloy, high-purity carbon steel that has superior edge stability at high hardness), and the chefs themselves are excellent sharpeners who sharpen the knives after every shift. 3. Steel is one of the cheapest metals. Stainless steel is also cheap. There are many kinds of carbon steels and stainless steels, and some of the best knife steels are very expensive. A blank made of some steels costs more than what many people are willing to pay for a finished knife. 5. Any metal can be make razer sharp. It's meaningless to judge a knife when you have a new razer Sharpe knife . Most metals cannot be made razor-sharp. Most knife steels can't be made razor sharp. If you're speaking literally, a razor needs an a tip radius that's close to the minimum possible for a very fine-grained steel. Otherwise it will give a rough and uncomfortable shave. If you're using "razor-sharp" colloquially, to just mean "pretty damn sharp," then sure, you can get most steels pretty damn sharp. But if you look at both edge geometry and edge fineness in appraising sharpness (which you should; they're both important) then steels are very unequal in their ability to form a usable sharp edge, and to sustain it through use without chipping or rolling. They're also very unequal in how easy they are to sharpen. 6. A $1,000 knife can be permanently destroyed in a few seconds if not sharpened carefully by knife sharpeners. Maybe. If you do something dumb while cutting or sharpening, you're more likely to just create a big tedious repair job for yourself. Or for someone expensive.

Shel, how does one display the model number (i.e. 112) ?

I'll do that. I can tell you that there was lots of room including between the top of the chicken and the roof of the oven. No parts were in danger of being singed.

Granton Knives , Sheffield , England . Thin , very high quality steel . hold edge . w the EdgePro , you can shave w these knives . https://grantonknives.co.uk/ get their catalogue . I have many others . not that expensive considering the craftsmanship and steel. all have Red Handles . very nice.

@Kerry Beal, I don't think there's a Costco in Thunder Bay. Do you know what would be nearest to @Smithy?

Me too!

Costco Canada has them for $329.99 plus tax.

I do not need to be enabled. I do not need to replace my CSO-300 (although I need to clean it to regain the steam function). Still. ...How could I find out whether I could buy one in Thunder Bay, the nearest Canadian city, and how much it would cost? Who's carrying these things, north of the border?

Town Cutler scalpel, Messermeister NSF Vic-like paring knife, Paraplui A Le’Epreuve Perfect Parer carbon, Kom Kom Thai fruit carving knives, 2 Gesshin pointy bois, 95mm Saji R2 Ironwood, Misono UX10 120mm petty, Yamashin 105mm tall petty in White no 1. I don’t know where my Wusthof has gotten off to, but I think I’ll be okay for now.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that mine is still in the box. But the old one is still working, so no real need to switch right away. 🙂

@ElsieD the next time you bake // tutbo roast a chicken , would you take a pick of the chicken in the oven ? how big a chicken ? how much room to spare ?

I used turbo roast for the first time the other day to roast a chicken. The recommended time in the user manual was 40 minutes. I had a bigger chicken so roasted for 45. It was slightly overdone, next time I would check it after 35 minutes. Sure does do the job quickly and well. I love the thing.

That rainbow! The sunset! Wow! Sorry dinner was such a disappointment. Looking forward to seeing you use the honeys from the farmer’s market.

Picked up some sourdough English muffins at the farmers market. The local abattoir has ham pieces (even when they don’t, they’ll cut you some if you ask). I sliced some of the larger ham pieces thin and cooked them up. Cooked the EM and a couple of eggs. I forgot to get a photo before eating one. Here is the second.

When it comes to knifes, I always consider the following: 1. Do you ever sharpen a vegetable peeler? The peeler remains sharp because the blade never touch anything else except food. 2. Sushi chefs have razer sharp knives because they use good knife skills. If you watch carefully, the main part of the bade never touch the cutting board when they cut. 3. Steel is one of the cheapest metals. Stainless steel is also cheap. 4. Tool steel is so hard and so cheap, it is used to make tools to cut other metals. Some knife makers just use cheap files to make very good knifes. 5. Any metal can be make razer sharp. It's meaningless to judge a knife when you have a new razer Sharpe knife . 6. A $1,000 knife can be permanently destroyed in a few seconds if not sharpened carefully by knife sharpeners. So I make my own knives. dcarch

...and again. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/various-pistachio-containing-products-recalled-due-salmonella-1?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Rice Noodle and Vegetables Bowl with Pork - slightly warm rice noodles are topped with diced pork cutlets (marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, honey and toasted sesame oil and quickly pan-fried), carrots and celeriac (quickly marinated with rice vinegar, salt and sugar), shredded iceberg lettuce, scallions and mint. Finished with a vinaigrette made from fish sauce, lime juice and zest, chili crunch and ginger

They'll also take a wicked sharp edge if you work at it a bit. they don't hold that edge very long, but it only takes a few seconds to get it back. I toss them when I've taken a little bit off the width, right when they don't cut against a board well anymore. I don't do a whole lot of actual intricate paring, If I did they could go a lot longer.

Thanks for the recommendation. I looked into the Opinel and liked what I found. Ordered a set of 112s ... price is right, loved the wooden handle, and the thin stainless blade fit my preference. The price was a bonus, about the same price as the Victorinox. And it'll fit perfectly into my knife block. I also found an Opinel that would be a nice gift for a friend of mine.

If you want a Japanese paring knife, as opposed to a petty, you could go with this Minke whale* now on sale at Chef's Edge * Other whales also available

More of the usual today. This is the view of the tidal creek from the back deck of the house we are staying at. We drove out and decided to try and get a parking spot at the Beachcomber for dinner. We lucked out. We not only got a parking space, we got an open table. The menu never changes specials Steamer clams Fried clams (whole bellies, of course) Caesar salad with grilled shrimp Oyster po boy Fish sandwich We were seated next to the raw bar/steamer station and I snapped this picture in a quiet moment. Right after I took it, the guy on the left got 12 tickets. Cahoon Hollow beach. The dune seems to erode more every year Some of us wanted to go for a beach walk after dinner, so we headed over to Duck Harbor It was too cloudy for a sunset, but we had a nice walk until lightning started up in clouds offshore Everyone left the beach rather rapidly after that!

That one is from Domino's China, too. Fruit pizzas are not at all uncommon here. It was a limited edition for 七夕(qī xī), the QiXi festival, China's equivalent of Valentine's day, which was yesterday. The Chinese writing doesn't mention the banana, but it looks like that. It is no longer available. What stunned me most about the one I posted was the incongruity of the volcano* cake on a savoury pepperoni pizza. *The literal translation of the term they use.

No, they are dessert offerings. Even this one, from Taiwan, I believe, has bananas as a topping.

Yes, but do they plunk s'mores makings, volcano-style, on the middle of an otherwise-savory pizza? (If so, I probably don't really want to know about it)