KennethT

@liuzhou what about those tree stump cutting boards I've seen? I don't know what type of tree those cross sections are made from.

Hopefully it will arrive to her on Wednesday and I will have UPS pick it up the same or following day... Cutting it close! Hopefully the low value exemption will stay in effect.

The interior cavity (X-Y) seems pretty much the same dimensions as the 300N1, but the height (Z) seems a little taller.

A quick hop from Sumatra (yesterday's lunch) to Singapore - Peranakan style chicken curry made with homemade curry powder, and curry leaves and lime leaves from the garden.

Like @rotuts, I look forward to your trips as well, so thanks for bringing us along again! I'm happy to see that your weather or air quality wasn't affected by the Sahara dust as I've been reading that it's affecting some other parts of the Caribbean right now.

Is fried mantou a thing there? I've seen that in Singapore...

I've seen this in a few places in Indonesia also - but always in places that are serving foreigners, almost exclusively - like dive resorts whose clientele is mainly European or Australian (and the odd American or two). Otherwise there's nothing resembling bread at all. Unless, of course, you're in a cafe or higher class hotel in Jakarta, in which case all bets are off. It could be just like a French boulangerie in those places!

The Whippet looks like a Mallowmar... I used to love those as a kid.... but not in pink! https://www.snackworks.com/brands/mallomars/

I hate to trouble you to do that. I checked using my UPS portal (through work) and all they asked was where it was being shipped from - they didn't care where it was originally manufactured. According to my UPS portal, they said that at a value of $300, it was considered "duty type: 09, low value" and had no duty applied.

The tariff rules have been changing by the week here lately. A month ago, China had over a 100% duty, now it's like 30%. As far as I know, the tariff has been converted since it was already imported into Canada. So the origin is now Canada - it shouldn't matter where it was originally made - it is being shipped from Canada to the US. When I used my UPS portal, they just wanted to know where it was shipping from to calculate duty, they didn't ask where it was actually made. And my UPS portal told me that (when using a cost of $300) that there was no duty as it had too low of a value. The only time it matters where it was made is if it isn't actually being imported into Canada yet - if it's being shipped to the US via Canada, but doesn't stop and go through customs in Canada and actually enter Canada. But if it's being purchased in a Canadian store, then it has been converted, so the country of origin would be Canada, as far as I know.

Holy cow!!! That netParcel gets a much better discount than I can get! Are those prices (not including #1 which is drop-off only) including pickup from you?

Yes, shipping from Canada is expensive. Shipping from Vancouver to me in NY would be about US$250 - using dimensions of 25x21x20 and 30 pounds. Because of the size, UPS used the dimensional weight rather than the um, weight weight.

Thank you so much. I can check the shipping costs either once I get to work on Monday morning or if I figure out how to do it from home this evening. I will keep you posted. As for if I had a choice, I would take the new 500C. I'll get back to you soon!

Just a final update, the seller already wrote back to me and told me to initiate a refund request through Ebay and they will completely refund the purchase including the shipping cost, and that I should just dispose of the oven or try to find someone to fix it - they don't want me to bother returning it to them since it doesn't work anyway. So I'm very happy with this Ebay seller and would certainly buy from them again. So, on to the topic.... sigh.... unless an enterprising Canadian would consider shipping a CSO 500 to me here in NY... hehe... I can pay by Zelle or wire transfer and can throw in a bit extra for the trouble, and I have a UPS account to ship with - I can send a call tag so UPS can pick up from them....

Since my issues here, I'm back in the market for a new steam oven. It seems like the rest of the 300s on Ebay are all used and I'd rather not get a used piece of kitchen equipment. I would jump at the 500 if I could get it, but unfortunately it's unavailable in the US.... so I've been looking at this one from Panasonic: https://shop.panasonic.com/products/homechef-7-in-1-steam-multi-oven-0-7-cu-ft?_pos=1&_psq=sc180&_ss=e&_v=1.0 It's significantly underpowered compared to the CSO 300 and loses an inch in the depth. BUT, it comes with 2 racks and 2 pans which would be convenient at times. It also has a "ferment" setting which could be interesting.