Recent content by la2tokyo

Ye of little faith - Enough with all the snide remarks! There is excellent wine in boxes these days! Between boxes and wine kegs there is a surprising amount of good wine drinkable without worrying about opening and wasting half-empty bottles. Unfortunately I know this because I drink away a...

Thanks! This seems perfect!

Does anyone know of a high quality mukimono that's stainless? I need something to do tiny detail work on little stuff like yuzu peels and other reactive vegetables, and I can't have them discolor at all, even after sitting for a half day. I don't own any stainless knives, but the stainless...

I think Montague has a demo facility near San Diego - I'm trying to find out, but if they do have it I'll go down there and try it out. We are too busy to cook steaks in a pan. We need to be able to cook six or eight steaks at a time. Easily. We barely have enough burners as it is. I feel...

Who is the manufacturer? Is the whole thing one temperature, or are there different zones? If you can turn down one side is it feasible to cook chicken in the cooler side? Is it harder for an inexperienced cook to cook a steak in an overhead broiler than a regular grill? I'm worried that...

We have an almost brand new Imperial chicken grill, which is similar we had before, but it's probably 10% cooler than the old one. The old one was about 10% cooler than I would have preferred, so now I'd say it's 20% low on BTUs for my taste. It can't be fixed, it just isn't designed to be hot...

I want to replace my grill with a steakhouse broiler. I have no experience with any of the products I'm looking at, and it's $10k, so I can't really make a mistake. The restaurant I'm at is constantly grilling steaks and chicken. Our grill is 45" wide, but there are hot and cold spots, and...

That guy is good!

Hamokiri are heavier than usuba and usually much longer. I rarely see one shorter than 270.

I've never ordered from rakuten, but in my experience the prices there are about average for a good price in Japan. You could probably get it 5-10% cheaper at a cheap knife shop in Tokyo if you know where to go, but usually not a lot cheaper. Rakuten is a collection of different sellers almost...

The Osaka-style unagi saki (Masamoto KS1518) is about $200 on rakuten. I think those knives are good for most sized unagi and anago. They're a little hard to use with big eels because if they're not razor sharp you dont' have much blade to work with, but even with the big unagi saki you use...

Travelling from Los Angeles, probably in May. I just found out that I can valuate my luggage up to $5K with the airline so I may look into that if DHL won't take them. I'll probably pack in a big box and wrap it up with twenty layers of packing tape. I could buy new ones when I get there, but...

I'm going back to Japan to work and I have had a horrible time finding a way to ship my knives there. I know I can pack them in my luggage but I'm always worried that they're going to be stolen. I tried to ship them via Yamato and FedEx - both refused to ship knives. Any ideas?

Yes just wash it a two or three times in cold water. As soon as the rice is submerged the first time move the rice around a little and dump the water immediately. All the stuff you want to get rid of will be absorbed into the rice if you let the first rinse water soak for more than a few...

Correct. Way too much water. The amount of water is by far the most important thing in making sushi rice. There is no +/- or "about" when doing it properly. I measure water to the gram and write it down every time I make it throughout the day to make sure that I control the amount of...