Here’s a little toolkit every Japanese chef wannabe should have in their kitchen. It makes a lot of a difference to have the relevent things around if you’re into cooking Japanese food. So I found a website that makes that relevent for those of you who are keen into having a Japanese cuisine friendly kitchen assembled by Yukari Pratt.

Strainers
I keep a wide variety of strainers in my kitchen, and they can be useful in picking delicate items out of boiling water or hot oil. When cooking in water or in stock, often meat and vegetables will give off a scumlike residue. The fine meshed strainers are great for removing the residue while leaving the stock behind. My favorite is the strainer I use when cooking yudofu, a simple dish of cooked tofu in kombu dashi (seaweed stock). It was made by an old gentleman in Kyoto, and for some reason the tofu tastes better when I use his strainer.

Otoshibuta (wooden lids)

In culinary school one of our first tasks was cooking vegetables, and part of the process was to prepare a circular piece of parchment paper to place over the vegetables while they were simmering. The diameter of the parchment would be slightly smaller than that of the cooking pot, and the parchment would have a hole in the center to allow steam to escape. The Japanese use a similar technique with an otoshibuta - a lightweight wooden lid. The lid keeps the temperature at a simmer and prevents the liquid from going into a rolling boil. The lid also keeps everything submerged in the water, but it’s light enough not to crush delicate items under its weight.

Oroshigane (graters)

Japanese graters are typically used to grate ginger, wasabi and daikon radish, and I reach for mine when I’m making garlic bread. Japanese graters generally have finely spaced teeth, and are relatively small, light and easy to care for.

Zaru

These are colander-like baskets made from bamboo, and they come in several shapes. They’re used for a wide variety of tasks in the kitchen, including draining and rinsing as well as cooling or drying foods. I find myself using a flat, round zaru most often, as the large surface area allows hot food to cool off quickly. Also, the bamboo adds a nice Japanese touch to any kitchen.
Mesh tea packs

When making meat stocks in a French kitchen a key component is a bouquet garni, typically of parsley, bay leaf, thyme, and peppercorns. These aren’t carelessly tossed into the stockpot - they’re wrapped carefully in cheesecloth and secured with twine. In Japan I still use bouquet garni, but now I quickly stuff the ingredients into a disposable tea pack. You can also use them to infuse a stock with other herbs, and of course you can use them for their traditional purpose, stuffing them with dry tea leaves to be brewed in a teapot.

Mandoline

A mandoline helps you to cut fruit and vegetables into thin slices, all with an even thickness. The Benriner mandoline is a Japanese model that more than lives up to its name (”benri” means “convenient” in Japanese). Compared to the French mandoline we used at culinary school, which was clunky and awkward to work with, the Benriner is compact, efficient and much more affordable. (My last one was purchased in Chinatown in New York City for less than $20.) It’s easy to adjust the thickness of the cut, and you can get julienne cuts simply by switching the blades.

Rice cooker

Recently Japan has seen a number of new cookbooks on the topic of how to prepare various dishes using your rice cooker. Whether it’s a hearty chowder or steamed vegetables, just add the ingredients to your rice cooker and hit the start button. Beth Hensperger has written the ultimate cookbook on this topic (called “The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook”). You may be surprised at just what you can cook in your rice cooker and how simple it is to do.

Ceramic peeler

This is used exactly like a non-ceramic peeler, for peeling fruit, potatoes and so on. However, the cutting edge is made from ceramic, so it won’t interact with the flavors of the food you’re cutting. The ceramic edge also stays sharp much longer than a metal edge, and it will never rust. Kyocera makes a ceramic peeler that can be used by both lefties and righties.

Brushes

In my red toolbox was a pastry brush that looked like something an artist would use to paint a large canvas. At culinary school it was used mainly for delicate tasks in the pastry kitchen with melted butter, egg washes or finishing a fruit tart with an apricot jam glaze.

In the Japanese kitchen, brushes are used to coat fish with delicate sauces, or to dust things with flour. The traditional Japanese brush is itself a work of art, and handmade ones in particular show an amazing attention to detail. They’re light and easy to work with.

Source: Tokyo Food Page

First there is the Hammacher Schlemmer’s: Toaster and Egg Cooker combo and now there’s this 3-in-1 Breakfast Maker by Sunpentown.

3-in-1 Breakfast Maker

Why have just Eggs and Toast when you can also have sausages/croissants/muffins/bacon/etc with it? This 3-in-1 Breakfast Maker is perhaps the final frontier of the year, until they come up with a 4-in-1 breakfast maker.

Gadgets like these are fast becoming a multipurpose tool, just like cellphones but better because you can eat the finishing product! :)

3-in-1 Breakfast Maker Specs:
- 4-cup coffee maker,
- nonstick frying pan,
- and 5-liter toaster oven,
- the appliance is compact (16″ x 9.5″ x 9.75″),

for more details visit their website here.

The best thing about this machine is that it’s price affordably too - only $68.95.

Source: Popgadget

I am a sucker for gadgets, especially kitchen gadgets. And this gadget, a Toaster and Egg Cooker combo is going to be on my list. I may or may not buy it but if it ever comes to a point where i can buy it, i just might!

Most of the time, certain inventions just don’t make sense. Like for example when people invent a fridge with a screen on it. It’s cool but, come on, it’s a fridge. Nothing beats pasting your child’s artwork with magnets. Only doofuses would scan their child’s painting and load it to the fridge. But when you invent something like a toaster that also cook eggs at the same time, you have a winner!

I present you the Hammacher Schlemmer’s Egg Poaching Toaster!

Egg Poaching Toaster

It can make the complete breakfast of egg and toast in just 4minutes! I am excited because toast and eggs with runny yolks are my favorite breakfast of all times. Oh and cleaning up is easy too. Since the egg tray is non stick, you just need do a littl quick rinse and you’re done. Unless you used oil, which we all would eventually cos eggs without oil is kinda yucky, just soap it up a little. :D That’s as much cleaning you do with this since you dont’ ever clean toasters, or do you now?

:)

Source: Hammacher Schlemmer’s

The most important tool in a chef’s kitchen isn’t the pots and pans. It’s not the utensils he used or the people he work with. It is none other than his knife.

A good chef only really need ONE knife s/he can depend on and everything will fall into place. Imagine trying to slice up a tomato for a sandwich, but you end up with mushed up tomatoes in the end - I would say that’s more than annoying. It’d be a bane for most chefs to live with a knife that goes blunt after a few chops.

Therefore, I take it as my responsibility as a passionate foodie and chef wannabe to tell about the Top 10 Knives that will make any wannabe a Chefie!

NO. 1
SHUN CLASSIC 6.5-INCH KNIFE
This baby is by far the best knife in town. I know because I own one. It’s perhaps the most affordable of knives with a perfect grip. Although one not so fine point about this knife is that the knife is made complete from stainless steel, from the handle to the tip, so if you have an oily hand, it might not provide the grip you need. But otherwise, this knife is even recommend by Chef Masayoshi “Masa” Takayama - owner of Masa the most expensive high end sushi restaurant in California that was named as New York’s Top 50 Restaurant by Leisure+Travel Magazine 2006.

NO. 2
MISONO UX10 SEVEN-INCH
The blade is made from top-quality Swedish stain-resistant steel, which has a hardness comparable to carbon steel and holds its edge well.

NO. 3
KORIN VG SILVER 6.8-INCH
Designed by Korin’s knife master Chiharu Sugai, this has a carbon-steel interior coated with a high-chrome-low-carbon layer; that makes it softer and easier to sharpen.

NO. 4
MAC SUPERIOR 6.5-INCH
The Mac, which tied with the Wüsthof below, has a high-carbon stainless blade that sharpens well, but it’s delicate, so it could chip if it hits a bone.

NO. 5
WÜSTHOF SEVEN-INCH
A high-carbon stainless-steel blade forged in Solingen by one of Germany’s oldest knife companies.

NO. 6
GLOBAL SEVEN-INCH HOLLOW-GROUND
A high-carbon stainless-steel blade whose futuristic “hollow-ground” (those identations) style is said to help the knife slide more easily through food.

NO. 7
OXO GOOD GRIPS PRO
A high-carbon stainless-steel blade with the trademark cushiony nonslip grip.

NO. 8
WOLFGANG PUCK SEVEN-INCH HOLLOW-GROUND
Puck’s celebrity knife gets low marks for an uncomfortable handle and a blade that’s more or less uniform throughout.

NO. 9
ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS TWIN CUISINE SEVEN-INCH
Forged in Germany from a single piece of high-carbon steel, with a smooth polypropylene handle.

NO. 10
Thanks to Ray’s endorsement, this has been a best seller in its year on the market, but for some reason, it’s been ranked no.10. Maybe it’s the weird handle.

The Top 10 Knives ranking was taken from NYmag.com article May 22, 2006 issue.

Suddenly Boing Boing and Mother Digital started posting links to sushi-making machines manufacturer Tomoe, so I decided I should link to it before it becomes a meme and 3Yen is left behind in the dust… In fact, I came across this website a while ago, when I was planning on getting a whole series of machines: a cotton candy one, a crepe one, a pop corn one, etc. Then I got wiser and realised I should hire a sushi chef full time instead… But that’s another story.

Anyway, Tomoe has put up a pretty good website, promoting their very cool machines. And although there is a fair chance you are not going to buy one, you should go read how they work, how they were invented, what makes a good sushi, and so on. At least, go there for the pictures…

Regarding the photo at the top (MSR-3000W):

- This machine is the most high speed in the world．
- The producing capacity of this machine is 50pcs/minute (3,000pcs/hour)
- So you will be relieved even when a peak hour operation．
- The table and the hopper was made low to improve working efficiency
- Control panel used touch panel type. All you have to do is any used from install．
- The exchang of the amount of Wasabi became possible by the easy operation．
- The Front panel was made by the new specification, too．
- It is excellent in the durability and there won’t be a trouble．

Japan is famous for its cute/strange characters which have been developped mainly for the purpose of merchandising. Probably the most famous of these characters would be Hello Kitty. There are many other little branded characters you can spend your money on, and the most recent ones are the Aokubi Daikon series.

So why am I talking about gadgets in the Food section? Because a these particular characters are daikons, and in case you don’t know it yet, a daikon is Japanese giant white radish (sometimes called daikon radish). It has the shape of a giant carrot, approximately 8 to 14 inches (200 to 350 mm) long and 2 to 4 inches (50 to 100 mm) in diameter.

The Aokubi Daikon (I couldn’t figure out if it was the name of one main character or just the name of the series) come in various shapes and forms of course, from giant plush toys to pens, to stickers, to traditional bento lunchboxes.

They also made little angry purses. The message is too deep for me to understand it fully, but you gotta admit they look original.

These daikons have human features, with the facial expression of a daikon of course. You can find them pretty much everywhere these days. In Tokyo, at least.

Aokubi Daikon were created by Takara, the famous toy company, and Kiddy Land, the (also famous) Harajuku toy store. And of course they have an official website. There, you will find a flash animated cartoon which I urge you to go and watch. It shows a daikon’s everyday life, including relaxing in hot springs and watching mount Fuji, or going (to bed?) in the middle compartment of a fridge… In case you’re interested to see the whole lineup of merchandising associated to this series, there is of course a section for this as well. Which one is your favorite?

Ok, it is not really for you, it’s for your kids. But hey, if you can’t figure out how to use the dreadful Japanese chopsticks, you might want to try this 3-steps learning set from Combi Baby.

The way they work is that the kid gets used to using chopsticks first, then you can remove one piece at a time. When they feel comfortable, they move to the next step.

First, they hold the handle to keep the chopsticks stable. And the space between the sticks is maintained by the round hinge.

Then, they just use the hinge.

Free at last!