Japanese Kitchen Gadgets & Equipment

[helenjp]

You're overlooking the central function of a toaster oven. It has a TIMER. It just turns off when small kids distract the toaster oven owner, instead of burning the house down!

I have one, so that I can simultaneously cook breakfast toast, zap rice for lunchboxes in the microwave, and use the gas range to grill fish for ditto, and boil the lunch spinach and fry the breakfast eggs. Life would just be too lackadaisical entirely without an oven toaster.

Another point in their favor is that they are so simple that they are practically indestructible. The bottom may rust out of it, but it will still toast your toast...

It doesn't take up counter space. The toaster oven sits on top of the microwave, and I then balance saucepans full of boiling soup etc on top of the toaster, to free up gas rings...

[merrybaker]

Two of the sites I found recommend using a tawashi.  One of them says to wash a suribachi with neutral detergent and a tawashi.

I've seen those in the store and wondered what they were. Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[_john]

speaking of grinding sesame seeds... I use this all the time for salad dressings, ohitashi, etc..

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/images/ssgrinder_150.jpg

some gadets I don't have yet but want to buy are a takoyaki pan and a small rectangular charcoal yakitori and robotoyaki grill. oh and one of those "green machines" that makes thin spiral vegetable "threads" (I think they are made by benriner)

http://www.eurus.dti.ne.jp/~harabird/takoyaki.JPG

http://www.kitchenconservatory.com/benrinerhelp.jpg

[Hiroyuki]

speaking of griding sesame seeds... I use this all the time for salad dressings, ohitashi, etc..

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I have a similar one, which I bought at the 100-yen shop. I used it a couple of times only. Now I use a set of very small suribachi and wooden pestle, which I bought at the 100-yen shop.

[Hiroyuki]

Here is a photo of the suribachi and pestle and the grinder.

The suribachi is 10 cm in diameter and the pestle is 12.5 cm long.

We also have an electric sesame seed grinder, which my wife was given as a gift. We once used it, but found it was so hard to clean that we have never used it again since then.

The suribachi and pestle work the best!

[Farmer Dave]

Do Japanese kitchens use those wooden sushi presses....(if anyone knows the name ..?) the rectangular one with the top plate pressing the layers of rice and fish into a terrine basically...

Seeing that plastic mini maki roll gadget made me think of them..

Always wanted one of the wooden presses..

[Hiroyuki]

Do Japanese kitchens use those wooden sushi presses....(if anyone knows the name ..?)  the rectangular one with the top plate pressing the layers of rice and fish into a terrine basically...

Seeing that plastic mini maki roll gadget made me think of them..

Always wanted one of the wooden presses..

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You mean something like these:

http://www.akutsu39.co.jp/mokko/

See the top right photo.

They are called oshi zushi ki (made of hinoki (Japanese cypress)).

Generally, such gadges seem to be called sushi gata (gata = mold).

You can see a variety of wooden and plastic sushi gata and other gadgets (such as rice ball molds) here:

http://homepage1.nifty.com/shincoo/s-0202d.html

I don't have any of those gadgets. Oshi zushi (pressed sushi) is popular in Kansai (area including Osaka).

[FistFullaRoux]

I look at this one in the stores all of the time but just can't bring myself to buy it.

http://www.kyoto-wel.com/item/IS81133N00105.html

henshin yude tamago

transformable boiled egg (sorry for the bad translation, but what else would you call this??)

You but the boiled egg into the mold, push it closed, wait a couple minutes and voila the egg has transformed from an oval into a heart, star or bear!

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I was just sort of cruising through here, and this stopped me in my tracks. This is quite possibly one of the coolest things ever. A use for an egg that hadn't even crossed my mind. They're beautiful - But I am the biggest kitchen gadget freak I know...

Thanks for this thread. Very informative. Just as nice to know there is a Japanese equivelant of a "dollar store".

[Farmer Dave]

http://homepage1.nifty.com/shincoo/s-0202d.html

I don't have any of those gadgets.  Oshi zushi (pressed sushi) is popular in Kansai (area including Osaka).

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Domo Hiroyuki

[dougery]

Hey everyone, Happy New Year. My whole schedule has been out of whack these last few months but I have a new item for my kitchen!

High maintenance but worth every penny! I can't wait to start training my new assistant. He's quite the food critic when it comes to milk... I'm sure his tastes will mature with time!

Ok, the other semi-Japanese tool in my kitchen is a Spam Musubi mold.

I've been using my digital camera to shoot photo's of my new assistant so I don't have any pics of this mold yet but its about 2" X 4" and makes quick work of a party tray of Spam Musubi. I really love this simple piece of equipment!

The other Japanese item(s) I truly love in my kitchen are my Japanese knives. Hattori, Masamoto, Tojiro, Global and Shun. I will never go back to German knives!

I'll try to check back in when ever my "assistant" allows me to! It's great to see everyone is in good health!

[torakris]

Dougery,

CONGRATULATIONS!

and

a spam musubi mold....????

[Kiem Hwa]

a spam musubi mold....????    

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I have one too!!!!

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Handsome little guy you have there dougery... Congratulations!

I'll also fess up to owning a spam musubi mold.

[Hiroyuki]

Oh, sorry. I thought it was just a joke or something. It's YOUR baby!! Hi, little cute baby!

By the way, could anyone post a picture of that mold?

[torakris]

Ok this is a pretty big gadget, but I can't imagine a Japanese kitchen without a コンロ　(konro or kasetto conro) a portable gas range used for cooking at the table.

[Kiem Hwa]

By the way, could anyone post a picture of that mold?

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Spam musubi mold is the clear, rectangular one. This one is for a half-sheet of nori, there are also ones that are twice as long for full-sized sheets of nori.

Also shown are onigiri-molds and a sushi-rolling mat.

Ok this is a pretty big gadget, but I can't imagine a Japanese kitchen without a コンロ　(konro or kasetto conro) a portable gas range used for cooking at the table.

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I really want one of these!!!! sukiyaki.....shabu shabu..... nabemono!

[melonpan]

Ok this is a pretty big gadget, but I can't imagine a Japanese kitchen without a コンロ　(konro or kasetto conro) a portable gas range used for cooking at the table.

I really want one of these!!!! sukiyaki.....shabu shabu..... nabemono!

as with most things, there are the more expensive ones which put out a higher btu or even have double burners but there are also very reasonably priced ones with less horsepower available for just usd$20 (i have seen even $15 ones at the koeran market). we got a cheapie $20 iwatani (on sale) a while ago and yes, theres no turning back. indespensible.

try one of the marukais in honolulu and check out what they have there. their prices are usually quite reasonable for imports. actually bc of the volume they turn around, their prices are probably one of the cheapest if not the cheapest for japanese imports.

ps, did you know theres a band out there called "<a href="http://www.con-los.com/">cassette con-los</a>"? clever-precious.

[dougery]

Thanks Mom and Kris! I can't wait until he starts eating real food, but I can tell right now that he is going to be my biggest critic ; )

Kiem, that is the exact mold I was talking about. Rectangular plexi glass!

I do have a pair of Maneki Neko (one left hand and one right) in my kitchen. Although not a practical tool, I feel they are an important part of the kitchen!

[zeitoun]

A couple of things i found in the drawer with the following instructions from my wife: do not use, do not touch.

I did a big booboo the day I used the wooden spatula looking thing (forgot the name) to pass a puree through a tamis. She made me regret this dearly.

[merrybaker]

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In an earlier post I praised my bamboo brush for ginger-graters. Later I asked how to clean a suribachi. Now look at the label above -- that same brush cam be used to clean a suribachi! Why didn't I think of that?

[prasantrin]

I went to Costco today and dropped by Carrefour to browse. I found some heavy copper cookware on sale. They had various pots and pans--ranging from about Y2000 (for a small--maybe 4" in diameter--pot) up. They were all stamped "Made in France" but I could not find any other information about a maker. From what I could read, the copper is about 1mm thick but that's all I could understand from the information sheet included with each pot. I think they had stainless steel interiors, as they were quite heavy.

My questions--has anyone else seen these pans? Or even better, has anyone bought them? The price is so good that I'm tempted to buy some. They're pretty heavy pans and I think they would be a good buy with or without the copper part. I want the little pots to make hot chocolate or melt butter

BTW, Costco also has a Le Crueset set for about Y28000. Comes with a 4.3L round cocotte (which alone runs about $170 US), frying pan (looked small--probably the 9" at $40), trivet (about $35), and tatin pan ($85). (See here if you want to see a picture of the set--it's the second or third down the page. I'm seriously considering it. It would be nice to be able to put a big pot of stew in the oven to simmer (since my stove doesn't seem to do a simmer very well).

[mrsadm]

It might be the real thing. Here in the US I found at a housewares outlet store, a copper skillet stamped "made in France". It was very heavy with a cast iron handle. It was stainless lined, thank goodness (I don't want to deal with tin). If the interior is shinier than stainless steel cookware, than they might be tin-lined. The price was about half going retail for French copper.

[torakris]

I haven't been to Carrefour for a couple weeks and I usually avoid the cookware aisle because the Le Crueset stuff always tempts me...

I wonder about the copper pans, I just might have to take a look!

EDITED to add that I don't see any mention of it in this week's flyer

Edited January 24, 2005 by torakris (log)

[prasantrin]

I haven't been to Carrefour for a couple weeks and I usually avoid the cookware aisle because the Le Crueset stuff always tempts me...

I wonder about the copper pans, I just might have to take a look!

EDITED to add that I don't see any mention of it in this week's flyer

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The Le Creuset stuff is on sale at Carrefour right now, too . The set at Costco is still a better deal, though. Interestingly, though, at Costco they only have one set on display (in the housewares section) and you have to talk to an associate if you want one. There are no boxes of the product underneath for people to just help themselves. They also only had red, as far as I could tell, but my other Le Crueset is all red so at least everything would match .

The copper pots at Carrefour weren't on sale (i.e. they didn't have a sale tag like sale items at Carrefour usually do), and I had noticed they weren't in the Kansai flyer, either. I suspect they are a limited time offer--get them now or tfb kind of thing. They weren't prominently displayed (weren't in one of the well-lit areas or in the middle of an aisle), they were just stacked near the end of an aisle (though not on the end). Most were wrapped in clear plastic bags. It was very low-key and one would not have seen them were one not wandering aimlessly around all the aisles (I had time to kill before the shuttle bus left).

I'm thinking of going back tomorrow...

[prasantrin]

It might be the real thing.  Here in the US I found at a housewares outlet store, a copper skillet stamped "made in France".  It was very heavy with a cast iron handle.  It was stainless lined, thank goodness (I don't want to deal with tin).  If the interior is shinier than stainless steel cookware, than they might be tin-lined.  The price was about half going retail for French copper.

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Did you buy the skillet? And if you did, how is it? I'm wondering about the thickness of the copper on these--if it's only 1mm, will they still be effective heat conductors or will the copper be mostly just for looks? They are quite pretty, btw (what can I say, I'm a slave to the kitchen fashion fairy ). I read that ideally, the copper should be about 2.5mm thick. What to do, what to do...