Jeff K

As for sellers in Japan, they're pretty above board overall. Especially with Amazon or eBay backing them up. I order knives and garden stuff from japan fairly often, usually through Rakuten but sometimes Ebay or Amazon. For me, Japan means less $ for shipping as I live in Thailand. Since they're scarce at the moment, i think it's a great idea posting any we run across, as there are bound to be people beyond the ones posting who are interested (otherwise it wouldn't be selling out). Special thanks to MisterKrazee for that. I really look forward to a handheld portable broiler. However, I've seen a lot of back and forth on which gas to use. Anyone have a preference? I'm guessing it doesn't matter as much when the steel, rather than the flame, is the heat source but any input from people using the thing would be great.

i have to wonder with that Japanese seller... maybe he meant Yen? that would make sense. for $7,000 i could find a machine shop, have one fabricated, buy a car AND some nice grass-fed NZ beef (about a year's worth). mid january sounds promising. as a freelancer i get paid sometimes. now's one of those times.

I finally get some extra money to buy one and they're sold out on Amazon. Is he going to make more? Or is the Japanese seller's $7,000 offer the only option? I don't hate my cast iron griddle pan or anything but I thought a Searzall would be really handy.

I'm very interested in finding a way to control an induction burner with precision, but not for sous vide. I'm going to go with the new Anova for that. The main reason I'm interested in pairing a PID and portable induction burner is to control the temperature of water... for coffee. I I've been heating the water for my pour-over on induction for a year or two now. I measure the temperature with a Thermapen. Sometimes the Thermapen shuts off when I put it in the water. I suspect this is a result of the magnetic field interfering with it as _john described above, as it hasn't happened with other heat sources. i do think I'll continue to investigate this, as water does heat faster with induction than plain electricity (I'm not bothered about heating the water quickly for sous vide as it's a slow process anyway.. I'm reading about what's under the hood here: http://openschemes.com/2010/11/11/1800w-induction-cooktop-teardown/ One of the benefits of living in Thailand is that I can affordably hire a techie to tear a burner down and rebuild it my way. I need to have a clear idea of what my way IS first, however. I'll need a techie; I stuck with engineering school long enough to revel in the geekery of it but not long enough to be anything but dangerous to myself and others if tasked with building such a gadget myself. One thing I'm noticing as I research this is that if anyone's done this already, it's probably a home brewer. The beer-making people are very interested in precise temperature control,

here in Thailand, all the idiots are engaged in the struggle for political power. right now they've signed up for the coup of the month club and are winning hearts and minds through arranging pop concerts and dancing soldiers (not making this up). there's an upside to all this: the idiots are so busy they don't have time to regulate food.

what Alex said. Except I prefer stainless for a spaghetti server. a wood spoon gets dipped in soups and such, and thus can stay adequately oiled up in the course of use. a spaghetti server is only used in water, and seems to me a wooden one would need a bit of maintenance now and then to avoid drying out. My stainless spaghetti server is about as low-maintenance as I can imagine.

Yikes! Using an oil with a low smoke point at high temperature, is um... like, um... playing with fire. I use olive oil for anything I can find an excuse to. I'm moving toward rendering my own animal fats but I'm intrigued with rice bran oil, especially for deep frying, thanks to this thread...

I may join the bandwagon if I'm not too late by the time I make up my mind. Can one sign up for these emails without plunking down the money, or...?

For the same reason i wouldn't use a $200 gyuto to open my mail, but if you use yours that way, well, OK :-P

I've not seen that brand around but pretty much every hardware store that sells gas burners sells something similar; it's a standard 'high pressure' gas burner. When I go all-in I'm going to get a proper Chinese-style range. They come tricked out with a blower, but I'm not sure what it's real purpose is (i do expect the leaping flames they cause are for more than show). I won't be able to afford my flamethrower in 2014 as I'm planning a trip to the States, and the baht's tanked a bit since the coup. I did buy an inexpensive, two-burner stove for interior use. It has an infrared burner and a normal gas burner. I doubt they can get as hot as the high-pressure gas burners but my perception is that they get a lot hotter than western high-end gear. When I first got it, I wanted to play, and used too much heat with my cast iron griddle pan. I decided my best/most fun option would be to burn off the patina and re-carbonize the thing. Not only did the infrared easily reduce it to bare iron, it even caused a glowing orange spot in the middle--black body radiation! THAT. IS. VERY. HOT. When I get an infrared thermometer I'll post exactly how hot, and maybe a picture of the thing, but it's not a particularly exotic stove in these parts. They're everywhere. Since I can't afford a 'real' wok burner any time soon, I'm going to start attempting to get wok hei on this thing.

Had Sichuan hotpot at a colleague of the wife's yesterday. I look forward to hotpot nights so much I blew off one of *my* colleagues' birthday bash for it. Got some mala sauce mix on my last trip to Singapore (it's hard to find in BKK) and will experiment with hotpot at home. First thing you'll notice if the Sichuan pepper's in anything like usable condition is that your lips and mouth 'tingle' when you eat a dish spiced with it. it's a very different sensation to other spicy foods. Some describe it as numbness but I prefer 'tingly.' Meanwhile, one thing that's worth mentioning: Sichuan pepper isn't closely related to black pepper, chili pepper, or any of the stuff we usually refer to as pepper, and often says 'prickly ash' on packaging. Generally the part you want to use is the seed husk (pericarp), not 'corns' as such (but everyone calls 'em that). Not sure if other parts are of much use. Delightful, thrilling stuff. So much so that after the first hotpot night I ordered Ms. Dunlop's book. I guess my intro to Sichuan food must've happened while this stuff was banned in the states because I had never experienced it until I had Sichuan hot pot in Beijing. Sichuan pepper's now creeping up the obsession charts at an alarmingly high rate.

maybe i never got over my form-follows-function modernist austerity kick from art school, but i disagree. i'd MUCH rather have something that looks like a refugee from an auto repair shop in my kitchen than some cutesy precious looking thing geared toward the kind of folks who'd choose a painting based on whether the color scheme matches their sofa. i also think that searing torches are something that will appeal to the kind of people who'd choose a painting based on whether it matches their sofa. so, in short, i think it's beauteous. but hey i'm the guy who thinks Orphan Espresso's Pharos is a most beauteous coffee grinder. that said, the gadget lover in me wants one--but i have a gas-powered infrared stove that throws down some serious heat, i'll probably experiment with pan searing and/or rigging something to hold a steak upside down over the flame before i invest in a torch. too many gadgets beckon (including a sous vide circulator).

I bought a hand-hammered CCK pow wok (the kind with the long handle) in Singapore (at a shop called SIa Huat, on Temple Street), and I'll be shopping for a wok burner (probably a small, one-burner wok range) soon (within the next couple of months, when I can afford it). What's different and/or interesting about my burner shopping is that I'll be shopping in Bangkok (where I live) so the brands and types I'll be looking at are likely to be a bit different from the usual options. If i do turn up some nice ones here, and you live in the US, Europe, etc., you might be able to find someone you can order them from and have them shipped. Just be advised that I'm not looking at the type you can safely use indoors... PS: Yep I realize this is an old thread, but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who are interested in woks and burners but haven't bought one yet.

I'm actually thinking of getting a capsule machine for my wife to use when I'm not around. I could stuff the capsules myself; no way I'm paying capsule-coffee prices, but she's not keen on grinding/pour-over-etc and left to her own devices she'll settle for <gasp> instant (which over here, is sugary crap, as opposed to plain crap). I guess indentured labor is a small price to pay for her conceding that it's "my" kitchen...

Was quite happy with the Hario Buono (I don't know if they're all induction-friendly but the one I borrowed was). I have to give it back so I'm going to get a Takahiro. I'm ordering it from Japan via Rakuten. Pyrex measuring cups are still handy... for measuring. Even the old ones aren't great for pouring. Pour-over pots have a really narrow spout which makes your flow easy to control. Alternatively, pouring from a Pyrex (or almost anything else) and stirring the grounds works well enough.

They had one in the staffroom at a place I used to work. It was always good but never great. Sort of like Starbuck's, come to think of it (but slightly less good-never-great than a Starbuck's cup).

I've been using induction and a stainless (but induction-ready) pour pot. Hard to control the flow with Pyrex but I may give 'wave' a try (and stir). A Thermapen comes in handy here.Still, the MacGyver factor of klugeing a PID onto a pour-pot is hard to resist...

Given the long delay in releasing the 220 version, and these caveats, I may a) stick to pour-over and b) kluge a PID and heating element onto my pour-pot. I've been reading about hacking rice cookers into sous-vide baths and I'm inspired to go 'off the reservation.'

Exactly; and he's been on that tip for quite a long time (my memory's far from perfect but I seem to remember him bringing it up in On Food and Cooking). Incidentally, I'm in that EdX course too and I think he may have mentioned the searing thing, possibly in week one (though again, my memory's far from perfect).

I see a few shout outs for Laphroaig. It's my favorite I've tasted so far, but I'd probably drink a peat bog straight up if it were fermented enough. I do plan to try a few more Islay single malts when I get a chance, depending on what's available here in Bangkok (or in duty free when I fly)...

Yeah I like the looks of those 'mad science' coffee makers too. I may go in for one myself; they're not too expensive, at least not compared to espresso machines. Japanese companies (Hario for example) make them now if you can't find an old one on eBay...

Some combinations of coffee and roast are particularly temperature sensitive. This adjustability could potentially be useful if this matters to you. Also, it's the temperature when it contacts the grounds that matters. Typically, by most brewing methods, that 'at least 200 F' will end up a fair few degrees lower than 200 F, and in my experience this results in a rather weak extraction. Temperature is one of the variables you could tweak. Finally, if you believe that there's a set temperature that applies to all coffees, wouldn't the ability to lock that temperature in be useful? I'd say, if you're at all fussy about your coffee, hell yeah... That said, capsules make a consistently OK cup of coffee, whereas all this anal-retentive tweaking will result in some brilliant cups, some awful cups and many in between. I expect most people would almost never bother with adjusting the temperature, but would still benefit from the machine's ability to maintain a constant temperature (something I've found very, very hard to do with a manual pour-over).

Harold McGhee is also on board with the sear-last approach. Can't find a link at the moment but he makes a good, science-y case for it...

Can't comment on the OP's coffee maker but here's what I'm getting as soon as they make a 220 volt version : It's more a thing for the coffee-obsessed than the convenience-oriented pod users. It has many excellent features to please coffee nerds. It's basically a pour-over machine; it lets the grounds release gas after wetting them before continuing with the pour. The most noteworthy feature, however, is its rigorous temperature control. Not only can you choose your brewing temperature, you can expect your machine to maintain it. Here's their description of it: http://www.behmor.com/brazen.php I don't work for them or get kickbacks, and I haven't even tried this machine yet. I just think it will be a great way to make coffee if it works as described.

The weekend workshops at Bo.Lan looked intriguing, but their entire internet presence---website, email, everything---appears to be down. Is the restaurant even still in existence? The weekend workshops seemed quite intriguing and likely to offer as much depth as possible in a weekend workshop.