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Unusual & mysterious kitchen gadgets


andiesenji

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I would never have guessed. 

I took a screenshot and emailed it to my friend of 40 some years, Fumiko Ito, who has even more kitchen gadgets, both antique and modern, than I do, many hauled home from Japan where she visits often to see her daughter and grandchildren.

She just phoned and says she has a metal one with balls of wires on each end, large and small.  She says she has never used it, only the bamboo ones that are sort of like the chansens (matcha tea whisks) only longer handle and shorter, thicker "bristles" 

I have seen her use them, just never though to ask what they were called.  

It's kind of a dual-purpose tool because she uses the slightly rounded end of the handle to crush stuff in a suribachi bowl.

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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19 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

she has a metal one with balls of wires on each end, large and small.

 

Yes, that is the most common design. Like this.

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
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20 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Yes, that is the most common design. Like this.

 

 I think it’s really quite ingenious. I don’t make a lot of miso soup but if I did it would be on my wish.  Thanks for sharing. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

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I feel like it wants to mash or break up something.
Nope
You stick the business end into the miso paste and twist it.
=============
epic fail
=============

 

As I said in my opening post, it is not primarily a whisk, although it could be used as such. It has a very specific function.
And does that function include stirring or mixing in some way?
I would say stirring is the secondary function.

Put this into boiling water and stir, so that the paste dissolves.

===================
so, it appears putting it into boiling water is its primary purpose?

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I would suggest that its primary purpose is to measure the correct amount of miso for one serving of miso soup.

Edited by Anna N (log)
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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 I think it’s really quite ingenious. I don’t make a lot of miso soup but if I did it would be on my wish.  Thanks for sharing. 

They even have adjustable ones there is a channel in the handle that has a button that moves the plate up and down on the wires.

Pretty clever.  Instead of having different sized portion control on both ends, this is much neater.

 

I can think of some other applications where a gadget like this might come in handy.  

5a39764c7e5e2_ScreenShot2017-12-19at12_15_15PM.thumb.png.9e6275f7663d4a452db121eecc3a8111.png

5a39766d8ddb0_ScreenShot2017-12-19at12_14_00PM.thumb.png.11aef905e5ad7573eb0d93b984f7bd74.png

Edited by andiesenji (log)
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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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7 hours ago, AlaMoi said:


so, it appears putting it into boiling water is its primary purpose?

 

No. As Anna says.

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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  • 3 weeks later...

Frozen food knife.  Sold to cut boxes of frozen stuff in half or in sections.  I have a couple in my "odd gadgets stuff"

 

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Hi, Marmish. Glad to know you're still around.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's one for you, which I bought today. It is designed for a very specific gastronomic (dual) function, but on the table rather than in the kitchen.

 

thing.thumb.jpg.6f73e83235b358e541c38766d0f6f809.jpg

 

It's approximately 8 inches in diameter and 4½ in height.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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8 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I'm sorry, my first thought was that it looks like a hospital bedpan. The actual use is even stranger.

 

 

No need for sorry. The bed pan idea also crossed my mind. The actual use is not strange at all here in China. Well, it is slightly strange.

People eat melon and sunflower seeds etc all the time. There are shelves of the things in every store. But they usually just drop the shells on the floor. Here we have a dispenser and receptacle for waste. And it props your cell phone. What more could you need?

About 20 years ago I was on  a train somewhere in China and opposite me was a family which ate non-stop for about 16 hours. Seeds, fruit, snack foods etc. They very carefully put all the shells, paper, garbage etc into plastic bags. I was impressed. Most unusual.

Then when the garbage bag was full, they tipped it out onto the floor and proceeded to eat enough to refill it, while the carriage attendant swept up their debris and tossed it out the train window!

I am happy to say that standards have improved since then.

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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12 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

No need for sorry. The bed pan idea also crossed my mind. The actual use is not strange at all here in China. Well, it is slightly strange.

Now I'm curious. Did you buy it for this purpose or strictly as a curiosity and to perplex the rest of us? I am very impressed with the design of this. they have even taken into consideration it's use for left-handers, although, didn't you say at one time that left-handers are rare in China?

Edited by Tropicalsenior (log)
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2 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Now I'm curious. Did you buy it for this purpose or strictly as a curiosity and to perplex the rest of us?

 

A bit of both, I suppose.

I am not a big melon seed eater, but many of my friends are so it will probably be useful. I can also see some alternative kitchen uses which the manufacturer possibly never imagined.

 

And if all else fails, I may use it as a bed pan in my looming dotage.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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