Octaveman

Has anyone been to Rainwaters on Ketner? I haven't really heard much about them.

Gabriel, that is one scary looking crab. Hope he didn't cause that nasty crack in your block (I can give you tips on how to fix that). I'm loving the pics of the food so far. I should get Thompson's book as the recipes so far look great.

You beat me to it Toliver...that brownie just...um...WOW...my mouth AND eyes are watering that's how good that looks.

Thanks Gabe. When I made the paste it had more of a consistancy of a Mae Ploy curry...dry, pasty but not smooth. Your paste looks well mashed/blended very much like tomato paste. It's good to see what you were trying to tell me. I reviewed Austin's recipe for the dish you made and like most recipes volume of ingredients is up for interpretation. What is small garlic, what size shallots, how long is a stalk of LG, how long are the peppers are all good examples of how the size affects the overall flavor you're trying to acheive. Same goes for quality and type of ingredient (which chili to use). I understand experimentation each time you make it is a way to find out but if you have no basis for comparison it makes it hard to get the flavor the way it's intended. Am I over analyzing? Of course I am but I'm just trying to find that basis of comparison to judge all other versions I make...know what I mean? Peppers seem to be one of those things that are completely going over my head. Austins recipe uses large and small dried chili's. What actual types is he referring to and what are allowable substitutes if any? When I made the curry past this last time, I used what looks like the same chili's as you. I remember you saying that they should be very dark in color. Well, I bought some chili's (new mexico or calif, can't remember right now) that are BIG and DARK. I think you said these were acceptable. Would these be the large chili's Austin is referring to? Thanks for the great post. Bob ps where do you get Kaffir lime zest without finding the actual fruit anywhere?

Diva, no problem. I'm not saying service is not a part of the equation. I firmly believe that a single incident is not cause for condemnation. Sure, go to other places first but again, there's more number of days to eat out than there is decent restaurants in any given city. There are SO many factors that can contribute to any experience in any restaurant that it's just unreasonable to never go back based on one a shot deal IMHO (given the facts of the original incident). Now if someone got the same level of service the 2nd time then game over.

I am apparently a lot more laid back and forgiving than most here.

I never said they trashed the place. I was responding to people who think the place should be trashed. I agree, they have been diplomatic and feel they handled it properly. I also understand that people will give a place one chance. I've done that too but at least I ate the food. Wouldn't that just eat away at you knowing that the food could be hella good but you're keeping yourself from eating at a place based on one experience someone else had who didn't even eat anything? I seriously don't get that logic.

I agree but ya see, they didn't eat anything so the only thing they can say is "We never got our food and our server abandoned us so we left. ps the soda's were good". If the reader is going to think the whole place sucks based on the "debaucle" then that's being unreasonable IMHO. I take reviews of places with a grain of salt because it's based on personal opinion and what may be good/bad service/food/whatever may not be good/bad for the other. Moods at the time of visit can alter ones experience so if the reviewer just got in a fight with his/her spouse or they just got fired or they experienced road rage trying to find a parking spot could all drastically affect any review of any place at any time. Darin and his wife had bad service resulting in never getting their food. Should it stop anyone from going because of one stupid server? Things have to be put into perspective. I'm not minimizing their experience I'm just saying the place should not be trashed. If you're going to trash a place do it in person to the manager and not behind a computer where the people involved can't talk back in defense or agreement. Specially if they were never given the chance to rectify. They never ate nor paid for food so their money is intact. Since they never ate there it's most certainly still a choice to try. It's not like they got their food, it was prepared bad, returned it 4x for correction and they still never got it right. I see nothing wrong with trying again. They sat at the wrong table at the wrong time. Go back and try again. Life is short but how short is it that you can't visit the same restaurant twice?

You were right in getting up to leave and I would've not paid for the drinks...just walk out. If you were abandoned nobody would've known a thing about what's going on. If the food showed up as I was getting up to leave I would've asked for the manager right then and told him the story. If he said sit down and eat the food and he'll comp it I would stay and eat if I didn't have anywhere else to be. The manager is told while the server is standing there and it's a good bet you're food would've been free so it would be a win win situation. If the manager didn't comp the food then you just say you've been there long enough and you're leaving. I don't think the place should be verbally trashed based on one experience but I can see how you'd be soured by it. I say try again at a different time and see what happends. It was obviously a case of a bad server.

Smithy, they'd make great camping knives. Using them won't give you insight into whether Japanese knives will be good for your style of cooking. This is because these are traditional Japanese shapes. This means they are single beveled very much unlike your current set of knives. Without going into what is appropriate I suggest you look around at the websites below. I have ordered many knives from these people and they have a very good selection of knives. The main western style Japanese knives you should consider are the Gyuto, Boning knife (if you bone chickens), a petty and a bread knife slash roast slicer. First thing you will notice is that the shapes are very similar to your current knives yet are different too. Another thing that seperates them from their Euro counterparts is the steel. These differences are huge when it comes to performance and quality and durability and how long they stay sharp. I used to use Henckles until Sept 04 when I bought my first Gyuto. I gave those Henckels away and use Japanse knives exclusivly. Look around and see what you find. Ask away if you have questions. http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/DPSwdenS...ndleSeries.html http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/TenmiJyurakuSeries.html http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/KANETSUGU.html http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/RYUSEN.html http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/UX10Series.html http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/VGSeries.html

You bought what most Asian grocery stores carry. They are worth what you paid so don't expext a whole lot from them. The smaller one is a Deba and is used for more heavy duty work. You could use it to seperate chickens at the joint or you can use it to break down whole fish. I'ts not tough enough to go through the bigger bones of a chicken but ribs will be okay. You could also use it to take the meat off the bones too. While it's not ideally a boning knife you could use it that way. The longer knife looks more like a typical Japanese boning knife. The Honesuki as it's called can either take on a straight/flat profile or slightly curved like yours. I'd have to see it in person to determine if it really is a boning knife but it probably should not be used to go through the ribs...just for taking meat off bones. I'm sure you could use it for smaller prep type jobs too. What ever you want to use it for, really. Sushi is not what these knives are for. I wouldn't use either one for making slices of sashimi or slicing the rolls. You can use them any way you'd like because if they get damaged, oh well, throw them out. They're not work the cost of sharpening/repairing. What the hammer picture is showing is how to put the handle back on or to make it more secure should it come loose. Handles on very cheap knives will come loose and to tighten them you hold the knife and strike the handle forcing the blade into the handle. This is the way all traditional handles on these knives are put on whether they cost $15 or $1,500. The rat-tail tang (not a full tang) as it's called is not a design flaw. It's made this way on purpose to make replacing of handles easy. The first page of the instructions talk about use and care. The second page is how to sharpen and the third is showing all the different styles. If you really want a bargain in a Japanese knife take a look at these. They are the Tosagata brand and for the money you get really good knives for a super cheap price. They are rough around the edges (no pun) but I'll tell ya, the blades are really good and they are sturdy knives. The Satsuma knife is a new one they started offering and looks like a great prep knife. The Atsu Deba is super tough. I have the small chopping knife and it's done a great job so far. Anyway, use your knives until they fall apart and throw them out. Just keep in mind that they don't represent a good value nor quality Japanese blades. Cheers, Bob

Oh WOW! That's very cool.

Well, you didn't tehnically. Your post implied that it was. If you knew that Singapore was not in China then you could've used Denmark and it would have been just as pointless.

The $21 toaster would be $193.52 today using federal reserve CPI and inflation rates. the coffe maker would be $264.94.

Give me a price, I'll calculate it in 2007 dollars.

lay it down on top of a bowl or plate and go to town? Maybe? Nothing a few popsicle sticks and some duct tape couldn't fix.

I don't know, I'd look into just getting replacement parts. Something this specialized is not meant to be resharpened. I see complete vegomatics on ebay for $10.

Agreed, there's only so much one can do locally so there's no choice but to get them online. IF.com is comparable to other online retailers and they carry fresh produce as well. A year ago when Kaffir lime leaves were nowhere to be found in the stores, I asked the owner of IF what's going on. He said there were hurricanes, flooding etc where most of the suppliers got their lime leaves and the crops were destroyed. The lemon grass was also affected and I couldn't get that either. I checked back every couple of days and the local 99 Ranch and others were completely out of both items for over a month. IF.com had their own supplier and I bought it. He gave me a deal on the leaves and LG and the quality was very good. Price is super high on these items but supply and demand is the rules if you can't get it locally. BTW, this catastrophic event is what prompted me to buy my own Kaffir lime tree and grow my own lemon grass. HERE is where I posted about them. Check this out as this may also be an option for when you need those items. Further down is where I got the Kaffir lime tree. The Mae Ploy curry pastes on IF.com are not 500% more than in the stores. That would make a tub of it cost $0.70 in the stores and I know it doesn't. If anything it's double but not much more. Grocery Thai.com is another place that has a lot of stuff. Might be a tad cheaper than IF.com Temple of Thai is another.

Yes, he is correct. The picture that Sam posted has somewhat of a misleading title for the second picture or the "double beveled edge". Technically anything that is not a single bevel IS a double bevel. The DBE pictured is actually a V-edge with a secondary bevel put on right at the very edge. This bevel is extremely small and is used to give support to the thin primary bevel. Using this secondary bevel does not diminish the knife's overall sharpness. Many people who do their own sharpening make a V edge then will put this secondary bevel on their knives with just a few light strokes on the stones or whatever medium that's being used. Still a double beveled knife as there are two primary bevels on each side of the knife. I know there's someone out there that can better explain it than me but I'll take a stab (no pun) at it. Using a glass smooth steel you are taking your folded edge and straitening it out. If you add grooves to the mix you are now raking your fine edge against a surface that will remove metal. By removing metal you will be in effect destroying your original nicely sharpened edge. If you take a jeweler's loop and examine the edge you just "steeled" you will see an extremely toothy edge that looks very much like a saw blade. Far from the smooth edge that you started with. I've seen knives at friends houses or in the blocks of people hosting a party or whatever and there will be scratches on the side of the blade left by the grooved steel when they slipped and hit the side of the blade with it. Anything that marks up a blade like that can NOT be good for the edge. The debate goes on regarding which edge is better than the other: a toothy edge or a smooth edge. Both have their merits and it basically boils down to the fact that each one is better than the other for certain food types. For example...take a ripe tomato. A toothy edge will immediately grab and pierce the skin starting the slice whereas a smooth edge, although razor sharp, will hesitate ever so slightly before piercing the skin. Many users have these toothy edges and since they have that grab and go feel to them these people say "WOW, this knife is sharp!" when in fact, it may not be all that sharp at all. You can do a quick test to see how toothy your knife is. One way is to take and fold a paper towel and run it down your blade. You can also take some cheese cloth and do the same. You will quickly notice the towel being grabbed by the toothy spots. I personally use my fingernail. I slowly and gently run the edge down the tip of my fingernail and I can feel right away where the toothy parts are on my blade that I missed during sharpening. I prefer to have a smooth edge on my knives but I do keep a petty lightly toothy for slicing tomatoes. Honing with any kind of steel will improve your edge if it's folded over. Grooved steels will remove metal, smooth steels will not during this process. It just stands to reason that a knife will "feel" sharper after steeling. IMHO manufacturers include grooved steels in sets for a couple of reasons. First it helps to sell knives. Second, if the public believes these things will keep their knives "sharp" then they buy it. The general public is just not aware that they keep them sharper than dull but they do not keep them sharp so they buy into it. Plus, it's a fair guess that many people who own steels have no clue how to use them correctly. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

The Mae Ploy brand tub of curry lasts a real long time. I use these exclusively whenever I want to make a good quick curry. BTW, Importfood.com is very good and carries a huge selection of hard to find stuff. I've made many purchases from them in the past.

Sorry for it being a little misleading. Norton is what should be in the link. Below is the link for Shaptons that are a bit cheaper than the other places. Shapton Pro

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The Norton set I mentioned above would be $110 for the stones and $25 for the flattener. Being a one time cost, it will keep you covered for a long time. It may cost more than the knife you get but I think it would be safe to say that's not your only knife and wouldn't be your only knife now and forever. The edge Pro or stones are an investment like your knife(knives). If you're going to make the change from mediocre knives to quality knives it only makes sense to do what you can to keep them at their best, right? At least with the medicore knives you can keep them sharp on your own without the time and expense of taking to the local sharpening hack, ahem, I mean knife store to sharpen your knives every month. At $10 a knife every month that will cover the cost of the stones real quick. Russ, good to see ya here. I've heard a lot of good things about the edge pro. The only bad thing I've heard (because I've never used one) is that if you want to sharpen your knives to a very acute angle, the sides of the blade could easily get scratched. Other than that, I've heard it's a great tool. Maybe consider that instead of stones. I personally find joy in using stones as it's just me and the stone. It's definately more of a learned skill than through using the Edge Pro. Although it really doesn't take that long to learn. It just takes desire to learn a new skill and some practice like any new skill would.

You guys beat me to it..... Sanrensho, using two pennies is a standard guide that would fit most gyuto's. There are some gyuto's that can handle a smaller angle...like one penny. Takeda, for example, have very thin blades and you almost have to lay it flat on the stone to sharpen at the same angle Takeda made the knife at. It gets scary sharp and you have to beleive it when I say it cuts through things feeling like I just cut through warm butter. Korin's sharpening DVD uses the two penny/three penny guide too. It's a good guide, but it doesn't always fit for every knife. You can change your bevels to whatever you want...even the penny guide. Shalmanese, don't get confused by the term "Japanese knives" as there are traditional single bevel and western style double beveled knives. You do not steel traditional knives...never have, never should. Western style Japanese knives though require "honing" just like Euro knives. They just last longer between those times that it's needed than non-Japanese knives. You can hone your knives either with a steel or a high grit stone. You are correct in your understanding of what steeling does which is very important as many, and I mean MANY, people think it's to sharpen them. We can all thank manufacturers and misleading advertising for that. Oooh boy, regarding stones. Let me say this first. You wouldn't buy a mercedez then take it to the corner gas station for your repairs would you? Would you?? Then why buy a real nice knife and go cheap on the very tools to keep it like new? Stones are an investment as they will last you a long time. Even the lesser expensive ones because you won't be sharpening a whole bunch of knives every single week. The choice of stone is very important as not all stones are alike. Is Epicurean Edge the store in seattle your referring to? They have a wide selection of stones to choose from but they don't carry what I feel is a good selection of combination stones. These stones are double sided with two different grits. There are a basic set of stones I feel are required and the grits are 1k, 4k and 8k. At some point you may need to add a very coarse stone to make repairing chips easy but you can cross that bridge when you get to it. Basically, get a single 1k stone and a combo 4k/8k stone. This is what I call the core set of stones. The 1k stone will wear down faster so by getting a single 1k stone versus getting it in a combo stone you will not have the 1k side wear down faster than the other side. Plus it's thicker so it will last longer. The same resoning applies to the 4k/8k combo. These stones will wear very slowly so it's okay to get thinner ones to save so money. To give you an idea on how long they'll last...I've had my core set now for over two years and I probably have about 98% of the original stone left on the less wear-resistant lower grit stones. They will last a long time so investing the money to get quality stones is very important. Also, cheap quality stones will have inconsistant particle sizes in their stones. This would make for a bad sharpening experience. The brand I recommend beginners on a budget is Norton. For people with a higher budget, Shapton Pro is the way to go. HERE is a good place to get them. You will also need to buy one more thing: a stone flattener. It is imperative your stones are flat or you will get irregular bevels and it would be near to impossible to get a decent edge. You could get away without using the stone holder and use the plastic cases the stones come in if they do come with them (not 100% sure). They are designed for this too so that would save some cash. I've ordered from this place and they are good to work with. Being new to sharpening I would also highly recommend Korin's dvd. It's one thing to read how to sharpen and another to see it in action. There is a lot of talk about angles and it can take on different meanings if it's not made 100% clear in the text. I did a lot of How-To reading before I got started and spent a lot time asking questions after reading what people wrote. The video made thiings more clear. Cheers, Bob edited to add: Ryusen Blazen or Ryusen Damascus? edited again. Not sure why my fingers can't type vowels.

Sanrensho, a steel is NOT to traditionally used for Japanese knives and it should NOT be used with Traditional Japanese knives (single beveled knives). A steel can be used to hone Japanese double-beveled western styled knives such as a gyuto. It should be done with a light tough as the bevel angles are small and the edges very sharp. The angle you move the knife down the steel should not be any higher than what is already on there...IOW, not so obtuse to the steel that you fold your edge back and forth. I said above I have a glass smooth Handamerican steel that I will infrequently use in a pinch but I prefer go to my higher grit stones to do a better job...aligning the edge and to remove the weak spots Sam mentioned may exist. I do this because I sharpen my own knives and have a battery of stones to accomplish this. IMHO, the ceramic steel should not be used as a substitute for stones if you're already doing your own sharpening. If you have standard stones that need soaking I can see how regular honing would overall be time consuming. If you have stones that don't need soaking (Shapton Pro/Glass) then it would only take a few minutes to set up and take a few swipes to get your edge back. Most chef's I know keep their stone out all during their shift so they don't have to worry about setting up. Sam is correct that these extra fine ceramic steels shouldn't be used to replace regular sharpening. Again, I would have my reservations about them but I've heard the same thing from others too. Just never tried it so I can't really give a any opinion. These too should be used with a light touch. Matter of fact, when I bought my steel from HA, they gave me a grooved rest to lay the steel down on the table with and I was told to just use the weight of the knife to hone it. I have the leather hone that HA sells and use it charged with Chromium Oxide as a final step when I get in those modes where I want my knife to be uber sharp. Only the weight of the knife is used for this. Hope this clarifies things a bit. Bob