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One of the traditions associated with the lunar new year is house-cleaning. The idea is similar to "Out with the old, in with the new." You "sweep away" all the bad, and make room in-coming good.
The actual tradition is that the entire house should be cleaned the day before New Year's Day, then on the evening of New Year's Eve, all of the brooms and things used to clean are stored away so that there is no danger of accidentally sweeping out the good things that come in once the New Year arrives.
Now, I'm not going to celebrate the Chinese New Year by busting out a mop, but I do think I might stay within the spirit of the celebration by cleaning out my kitchen. There is a drawer in my kitchen, a very deep drawer, actually, that has a number of kitchen gadgets and tools that should be swept out of my house forever. The thing is, none of them are chipped nor broken. None of them are worn, and that is precisely the problem. They never get any use because they are *ahem* useless kitchen tools.
You have them, too. Like me, though, you're just afraid to throw them away because you think that there will be that ONE time two years from now that you will need it.
Trust me, you won't. And there is absolutely nothing in the world you can't accomplish with a spoon and a very good knife. Some highlights from my kitchen drawer:
- Garlic Peeler - okay, actually, this one doesn't even work all that well.
- Garlic Press - so hard to clean, it's not worth the ease of mincing garlic. I use a knife and kosher salt.
- The Brush - this is something that looks like a painful hairbrush that I still don't know what it was intended for.
- Melon Baller - I never make melon balls. I never make anything that needs to have tiny, cute ball-shapes.
- The Syringe - I have never used it, and actually, like the garlic peeler, it actually doesn't work that well. When I have to baste something, I use a ladle. Or a pastry brush. Then again, after finding Alton Brown's recipe for turkey, never will I baste again.
Take the time this weekend to follow the lunar new year tradition and just toss those useless kitchen gadgets! Don't give them to Goodwill. They should be put completely to rest.
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1-26-2006 @10:23PM Rick said... I agree whole-heartedly on the melon baller, but I've found it to be very useful for hollowing out apples, onions, and other "you will destroy me if you take a knife or spoon to me" type of foods.
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1-26-2006 @10:28PM Josh said... Wow, I couldn't give up my melon baller. I never use it to make little fruity melon balls, though, but I use it all the time to help peel and core apples real fast.
Note: I'm terrible at peeling apples and have developed the most fool-proof method possible. :-P
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1-26-2006 @10:32PM brian said... you need the melon baller if you want to make truffles. unless you're a professional chocolatier. the brush is useful for scrubbing root vegetables. the rest are definitely debatable.
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1-27-2006 @10:53AM Sue said... Ditto the rest on the melon baller and . . . scraping the seeds from a cucumber, measuring/draining capers (the large end is about 1 tsp), coring pears.
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