For the most part, I think of myself as having relatively decent knife skills. I can finely dice a onion without much effort, debone a chicken, julienne a potato, cut a carrot into a brunoise, etc. - not half bad for an amateur chef like me.
Well, despite what I think of my knife-wielding skills, I got taken to school this past weekend. My mom, who's in town visiting, wanted to make some low bock gow or turnip cakes for Karen and me. Most recipes for low bock gow call for grating the daikon radish that goes into the cake. However, my mom prefers to cut the radish instead so that it does not get too wet and soggy while it's being cooked.
Watching my mom slice the daikon into a fine julienne was most impressive. Each cut was very clean and precise, and all of the strips were nearly uniform in thickness. While I'm pretty sure that I could duplicate the end product, I seriously doubt that I could do it with the same blinding speed in which she took apart the radish. As Karen can attest, my mom was wickedly fast, even though she was just using a cheap cleaver and not my fancy Shun santoku. While she isn't as crazy fast as Hung from Top Chef 3, she was definitely impressive for a non-professional chef.
I guess that I'll need to go to Costco and buy a bag of potatoes on which to hone my skills. Maybe one day, I'll be as fast as my mom with the knife. At least I should have the right genes.
Showing posts with label knives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knives. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Staying Sharp
A couple of weekends ago, I took my two favorite kitchen knives (an 8" Wüsthof Classic Cook's Knife and a 6.5" Kershaw Shun Classic Santoku) for a long-overdue sharpening. On the recommendation of several people on the Good Eats Message Board, I brought my blades to Perfect Edge Cutlery in San Mateo, located about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose.
The store is well-known in some Bay Area culinary circles as the place to go for knife sharpening. I had to drop off the knives and pick them up later in the week, as they only do the sharpening work in the morning before the store opens. When I came back to pick up the knives a few days later, I took the opportunity to test drive a few of the many blades they have in their vast inventory. The salesman to whom I spoke was very knowledgeable (at the very least, he knew that my German and Japanese knives have different sharpening requirements, which is more than I can say about the folks at the high-end culinary shops that also provide sharpening services), friendly, and helpful. Overall, I was very pleased with the shopping experience and the job that they did reshaping and sharpening the knives.
Of course, the proof of their workmanship came across when I used the newly sharpened blades to take apart a pineapple. Both of the knives cut through the tough outer skin of the fruit like a hot knife through butter. The Shun felt especially good - it was like getting my hands on a brand new knife. I'll definitely go back to Perfect Edge for my future knife sharpening needs.
The store is well-known in some Bay Area culinary circles as the place to go for knife sharpening. I had to drop off the knives and pick them up later in the week, as they only do the sharpening work in the morning before the store opens. When I came back to pick up the knives a few days later, I took the opportunity to test drive a few of the many blades they have in their vast inventory. The salesman to whom I spoke was very knowledgeable (at the very least, he knew that my German and Japanese knives have different sharpening requirements, which is more than I can say about the folks at the high-end culinary shops that also provide sharpening services), friendly, and helpful. Overall, I was very pleased with the shopping experience and the job that they did reshaping and sharpening the knives.
Of course, the proof of their workmanship came across when I used the newly sharpened blades to take apart a pineapple. Both of the knives cut through the tough outer skin of the fruit like a hot knife through butter. The Shun felt especially good - it was like getting my hands on a brand new knife. I'll definitely go back to Perfect Edge for my future knife sharpening needs.
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