Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Great stuff but I'll still take my meat and potatoes.

Why add more clutter to your kitchen if you can just use a paring knife? The time saved is really not that much.

@SSGsnuffy: I have one of these not from Williams-sonoma, which looks like it in every other way. Got it from the hardware store. Has a screw clamp on the bottom, so it has to attach to the edge of the table. That's sometimes inconvenient in terms of the juice that gets created, but on the other hand, I don't have to worry about the suction cup going (I've had other gadgets where the suction cup failed eventually).

@eric214. On my model and it appears on this model there's a wingnut screw that lets you adjust the amount of peel that's removed. This is way more peel than needs to be removed - unless it's an old, punky apple, which won't give a thin peel.

SSG, the suction bottom actually works pretty well! It's one of those things that you might have to do two or three times to get it right, but once you get it right, it's not going anywhere.

Erich, the peeler is adjustable--it has a little screw that you loosen and you can change the positioning on it to control how much you want to take off. The largest setting will be wide enough to theoretically cut shoestring potatoes (it's a little hit or miss in my experience) but the thinnest setting will just skim the surface. What Tom says about the juicy mess is entirely true, though!

My mom had a Pampered Chef one growing up, but it clamped to the counter top.

i only have two single-use tools in my kitchen - an olive/cherry pitter and this. Family holiday dinner preparations (for usually upwards of 20 people) are much more tolerable since this marvellous tool came into my life! Three apple pies and usually a few potato dishes are done in half the time.

plus, like pianolady3 said, at least 3+ family members (my mom, my grandmother, and my brother are some of the usual suspects) LOVE using it, so i can pass off menial tasks such as apple peeling/coring/slicing to them while i make ravioli for the masses!!

It does tend to remove some flesh, but it is well worth it! For just one pie, this thing can make a juicy messy. However, the mess is well worth it when canning!

Water spinach is also known as convolvulus, for what it's worth. My favorite is the amaranth. Love that purple color! Any idea why Chinese restaurants serve water spinach and on-choy regularly (both of which I order) but never amaranth? But I agree that the sorting and prepping of Asian greens is a tedious chore. My grandmother used to spend 3 hours every day making dinner. I just don't have that kind of time nor the patience. :(

I envy those who actually enjoy the methodical rhythm of sorting Asian vegetables. I have to admit - it's one of my least favorite tasks, but then again, I am not a patient person.

@beth1 ... my child no.... my parents on the other hand did get that call because I called my 8th grade home economics teacher a...... not so nice word (hope you're happy @Amandarama), for slowing my roll.

We were told we could make anything we wanted, to see where our cooking skills were. I wanted to make pommes dauphinoise of course I didn't know they were called pommes dauphinoise, at the time I called them scalloped potatoes au gratin. Other students were making scrambled eggs, toast, hot cocoa.

When I pulled out potatoes, she (the teacher) asked what I was doing. When I told her she said (in a condescending tone), why don't you do something like scrambled eggs or toast... That's when I had my little Gordon moment... and a sore arse for about a week after, compliments of my dad.

This recipe sounds fabulous. I only recently became a fan of tofu. The recipe that did it for me was printed in the March issue ofGourmet. In this preparation, the tofu is simmered in water and then topped with a sauce made from toasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, scallions and sesame oil. It is delicious. It sounds similar to your pot of silken Korean tofu simmered in a spicy broth. Would you care to share that recipe, too?

alexandra's kitchen

Suegsf: I’ve read the MFK Fisher introduction quite recently, and the Reichl piece a few years back. From what I can remember, Ms. Reichl wrote that simply reading Tsjui’s book in its entirety, and not necessarily cooking from it, prepared her for her trip to Japan. I think her point was that the book is both a beautiful treatise on the cuisine as well as an instructional work.

In any case, both Fisher and Reichl mentioned how difficult it is to return to Western cuisine once your palate has acclimated to the Japanese way. Jeffrey Steingarten also mentions this, in one of his articles for Vogue.