Octaveman

Agreed, In-n-out fries are not that good but I've enjoyed them every once in a while. Agreed, no pickles please. There's something about the flavor of them that doesn't mesh well with the rest of the burger. Having never eatin at Taylor's I can't comment but it is rare that an established full sized (non-fast food) restuarant will serve an awesome burger. I've had plenty of "established" burgers before and they never gave me the roll-your-eyes-in-the-back-of-your-head-moaning-as-I-eat taste I get when I eat a double-double. I will have to say though, the French Quarter (aka Frisco burger) served at Mimi's is really quite good.

Ebay. There's plenty of suckers out there that will take them from you. I've seen "sets" sold over $1,000 before...insane.

Good call, Chad. I completely forgot about those too. I have a set of steak knives from them and I've had the same EXACT experiences as you. My knives came loose in the box and they were pretty dull (sharpened too obtuse). Other's I know that have the chef knife say it holds up as good if not better than the Tojiro DP. The fit and finish is surprisingly good too. In person, the turned finish is not as "in your face" as the pictures give off. Much more subdued. Great buy for the money.

No kidding? I would've never thought a manufacturer would get that specialized. What's the camera make/model?

They can but it's somewhat difficult and pretty time consuming. Serrated knives can certainly do the job but the quality of the cut is not as good as with non-serrated. Serrated tears at the food too much IMHO. The only serrated knife I have is the MAC bread knife mentioned above.

In the air or on a cutting board? If the former, that's impressive. If the latter, your knives will get dull.

Chicago Cutlery makes several series of knives. They'll virtually never need sharpening if they're properly cared for. Maybe if you put them in a shadow box on the wall and never use them. A knife will start to get dull after it's very first use and even the hardest of knives will eventually get dull. The claim of never needing sharping is a marketing ploy that has no basis of fact. All knives will eventually need to be sharpened. How hard your knives are and your mileage on them will depend on how often.

Chad, Whitedevil have it. I have a Hiromoto HC and it's an excellent knife at twice the price. I'd stick with a gyuto/chef's knife because a santoku is about 6.5" and that's as long as it gets. It forces you to buy another knife for those jobs requireing length. With Japanese blades, they are light and nimble so going longer can serve dual functions. They are light/nimble enough to mince garlic and long enough to slice a roasted beast. The general rule of thumb is spend the most money on your most used knife. If you use the chef the most, then buy a good gyuto/chef and get lesser expensive other knives. Also agreed, you don't need a "set". Three knives are the minimum and I will either differ with Chad slightly on those three or add to it depending if you really need a "bread" knife. Gyuto: Tojiro DP 240mm -or- Hiromoto HC 240mm Petty: Tojiro DP 120 or 150 Honesuki: Tojiro DP Bread: Mac SB-105 I added the Honesuki(boning) knife because the gyuto should never get anywhere near a bone or do any heavy duty work. If you piece your own chickens a Honesuki is a requirement. If you don't need a bread knife, the Gyuto can double as a slicer. This may all be a moot point since you're looking to spend $60 for this "set". DO NOT buy a pre-established set. What do you need with two or three petty's or two chef knives with only a 1-2" difference in length? Anyway, there ya go for the advice.

I'm on the fence with E.D. The deserts are rich and tasty but can be equalized with some coffee. Seating is cramped but can be romantic with the right table. Long lines at times but can get lucky. The slices of cake are also very expensive. My wife and I can't walk out of there without spending $25-$30. Pretty steep but a treat. See? On the fence. Haven't been there in a while though.

1st alcohol - no handouts/sips, my own beer - Age 14 1st sushi - Age 28 1st In-N-Out burger - Age 27 (had to drive 50 minutes to get it) 1st authentic taco shop Carne Asada Burrito - Age 26 1st whole mushroom of any kind - Age 22 (had to be battered and deep fried) 1st escargo - Age 42 1st willingly and knowingly eatin a shrimp - Age 19 (part of shrimp salad inside of a papaya in first class to Hawaii) 1st in the ground baked pig - Age 19 1st Poi - Age 19 1st "cooked" oytser - Age 28 (Oysters Rockefeller) 1st raw oytser - NEVER!!!! 1st lobster - Age 21 1st Tijuana street hot dog wrapped in bacon (mmmm) - Age 26 1st calimari - Age 23 (at Gilroy Garlic Festival) 1st artichoke - Age 8 (back when you could get artichokes the size of your head for 10 cents) 1st beef tongue - age 19 1st anchovy - Age 15 (on a pizza) 1st Buffalo wing - Age 23 1st Buffalo wing in Buffalo NY - Age 42 (at the Anchor Bar) 1st Chicago style deep dish pizza in Chicago - Age 40 There are obviously so many more but who the hell can remember them all or has the time to think and post them all? My first broccolli...hmmm...definately 5 months old.

I made a thai dipping sauce that included minced lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves and took a macro pic of the mince. I used the Takeda gyuto and it was awesome to use. I could've gone to a smaller mince but I wanted some texture to the sauce, not mush. Notice the clean cuts on the smallest of pieces...no damage or smashing of either ingredient. The thin edge was tough as hell to be able to handle lemongrass. Something not recommended for a Japanese gyuto. But this gyuto uses aogomi (blue) super steel that is tough as nails. Rockwell is 61-63. This has become my absolute favorite knife. What I used... (clickity on the pic for larger version) What it did...

The Albertson's (formerly Advantage) that Tolier mentioned is huge and agree that it has lot's of stuff to check out. It is almost on the corner of 805 and Balboa Ave. behind Island's and Applebee's restaurants. Worth a look. Also, 99 Ranch is the next exit north of Balboa on 805 and that too as mentioned is worth a visit. Go East on Claremont for about a mile and it's on the left side. Cheers, Bob

Nice forced patina on the HC...I like the streak marks.

Awesome knife. Looks very well made and in great shape for being 13 years old. You may have yourself a rare item in that if he stopped making knives, he may not have made very many. You let someone else sharpen it? Man, if it were mine, I wouldn't let anyone attempt to sharpen it. Nice score.

John, they do hold an edge really well despite their hardness level. And they're cheap too! Many cleaver fans I know love CCK and it's always good to hear of another. Andie, my eyes were first drawn to that knife out of all of them. You can definately tell it is different from the others. I'd like to get a better look at it. Do you know it's particulars? Didn't find a website on him.

Hey John, I'm pretty sure your cleaver is from the same maker as mine Chan Chee Kee and quite possibly model# KF1303 depending on the measurements of yours. The black part is the unfinished portion of the blade from forging and is not a "seasoning" in the traditional sense of the word. The style is called kuro-uchi. CCK knives are very good knives and you were smart to buy one. I wish there was a local shop I could get more from. Yours looks well loved.

Here ya go.....click on the thumbnail for a larger version. ROW 1: Takeda Hamono custom AS (blue super) gyuto 255mm / Ichimonji Mitsuhide SRS15 gyuto 240mm ROW 2: Hiromoto HC Carbon gyuto 270mm / Hiromoto AS gyuto (stainless clad) 240mm ROW 3: Kikuichi Elite Carbon gyuto 240mm / Misono Swedish Steel gyuto 270mm ROW 4: Watanabe blue steel deba 180mm / Watanabe white steel yanagiba 300mm ROW 5: Takeda Hamono AS sujihiki 312mm / Ryusen Blazen honesuki 150mm ROW 6: Chan Chee Kee vegetable cleaver (KF1101) / Tosagata ajikiri ROW 7: Al Mar paring 3" / Korin Ginsan-ko (stainless) yanagiba 240mm I also have two knives on special order that have yet to arrive. A Murray Carter Aogomi Super gyuto 270mm and an Ittosai Shiro-ko Honyaki gyuto 270mm. These knives replaced my three Henckles 4 star I had for 10 years. Wanted something better. Cheers, Bob

I'm working on an order for regular and sashimi quality stuff. Gonna pick up this Sat and grill some fresh U-8 scallops and steak for a surf-n-turf thing. The only thing about this place is they have minimum quanitities with each fish. Most are 2-lb min but that's okay. It would be easy for two people to eat 2 lbs of fish in a week with 8 ounce filets per person. Almost forgot, sign up for their newsletter and get member discounts.

That's it, The Fishery. Didn't know they closed. Bummer. Forgot about 99 Ranch...that would be good too.

Catalina Offshore Products are off Morena Blvd. and have great fish and selection. They are mail order but have local pick-up hours as well. There is another place I've heard of but never been to in Pacific Beach. Great-News cooking school buys their fish here. I can't recall the name but call them at 1-888-478-2433 and ask them where they get their fish for the classes. I know what you mean about the Point Loma shop...too busy for my liking as well. Prices questionably on the high side too. I would give Catalina OP a chance. Huge selection. Look around the site and see what I mean. Hope this helps, Bob. edited to resemble English

As people said you will run into issues with not getting what's on the registry and getting something in essence already on the registry. They are not getting 8 knives...they are getting 5 knives, shears, steal and block. Three of the knives are close in size that could be considered duplicates but the variety in the set is not bad. The set itself is not bad either. I've never seen or held them but from what I've been able to gather they're close in quality and material to Shun classic which are good knives. If it were me, if I felt close to my neice, I would tell her to take the knives off the registry as I will be getting them something much better. If she insisted on those and those only then fine, get them. But if she and her fiance just picked them because they look nice then removing them will not be a problem. It's very likely they chose them out of convenience and not from doing some research on their quality compared to all other knives out there. So assuming they're game for taking them off, I would get them four Tojiro DP knives and a small block from HERE. The choices I would make are Petty 120mm, Santoku (for her), Gyuto 240mm (for him) and a Garasuki. That totals $230 then you have room for a small block and a sharpening stone and/or steel. Me? I would not get a stone or steel. I would just offer to sharpen them once a month for them. If she does all the cooking, then drop the santoku and get a 210mm gyuto instead of the 240mm. These are very light knives so longer doesn't mean big difference in weight or balance. If you want to go the easy route, then just get the set as it's not bad. But I think you should ask them to take the set off their registry and get something a lot better, not just marginally better. Bob

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

One of the best food related birthday gifts I ever got was a gift certificate for $50 to a butcher shop. I chose two of the biggest porterhouse steaks they had...something I would've never done on my own.

Oh for the love of pete...Bol Weevil is not that good at all. Just thinking about it makes me want to hurl. It's a very basic chain burger joint that uses tasteless costco-ish pre-formed-pre-frozen-bland-tasting burgers. Ho Dad's in OB is so much better. In-N-Out is so much better. Hamburger Hut in Escondido is so much better. Western Steakburger with their charbroiled burgers is so much better. Claimjumper burgers are so much better. Mimi's French Quarter burger is so much better. The list goes on.... Bol Weevil, phphphttt....blech...patewie.

Andie...any four slice toasters that are reasonably priced with quality?