Michael Chang

One of my favorite coffee beans at the moment is Trader Joe’s Bolivian Blend.  The “blend” label is used because the beans come from a variety of farms.  The coffee is still 100% Arabica beans– no cheapo Robusto beans here!  The Bolivian Blend is a medium-dark roast, and it’s very aromatic and rich (caramel-like).  At $6.50 for a 14 oz. can, this is a great deal for really good coffee.  It’s been my favorite Trader Joe’s coffee so far.

Definitely get the whole-bean version and grind yourself.  Get a decent, low-RPM grinder that uses conical burrs.  These conical-burr grinders ($100) heat up the beans a lot less because they operate at much, much lower speeds (about 500 RPM) than cheaper $30 burr grinders and blade grinders (10,000 to 20,000 RPM).  Less heat in the beans means better flavor preservation in the beans’ essential oils.

Capresso makes a great grinder below $100 (from Amazon):

http://www.capresso.com/coffee-grinders-burr-infinity.shtml

Try the Bolivian coffee!  (By the way, it’s organic and fair-trade, too.)

Stores sell these specialized metal bars that magically wash away garlic oils/scents on your hands. These bars often cost around $10. What’s the secret? They’re stainless steel!

So, you can save yourself counter space and a few dollars by using your run-of-the-mill stainless steel spoon, instead. Why stainless steel pulls away garlic oils so effectively is still a mystery to me. There’s some good chemistry behind this phenonemom, but I haven’t seen a definitive explaination— only speculation…

I watch a lot of Food Network programming in the background (i.e. while I’m doing work, cleaning, writing, etc.). Cooks on that network have all sorts of expensive kitchenware, pots and pans, and tools, but one that is obviously missing is a good ol’ pair of chopsticks. I find chopsticks indispensable in the kitchen no matter what kind of food I’m cooking. A $0.10 tool: why hasn’t this caught on in western kitchens? Food Network kitchens have press pots, Moroccan tajnes, fat separators, garlic presses, and special scoops for fishing out pasta, but no chopsticks???!!! (They couldn’t find them at Williams & Sonoma, so they gave up?)

That’s my two cents on the humble chopsticks. On an even lighter note, here’s what I found printed on a restaurant’s chopsticks cover (verbatim, believe it or not):

Welcome to Chinese Restaurant. Please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks the traditional and typical of Chinese glonous history and cultual. Learn how to use your chopsticks.

Tuk under tnurnb and held firmly

Add second chcostick hold it as you hold a pencil

Hold tirst chopstick in originai position move the second one up and down Now you can pick up anything:

As you can see, someone looked at a prior version of the chopstick instructions and re-typed it in (like playing telephone or making a copy of a copy). So, “thumb” becomes “tnurnb” because “h” looks like “n” and “m” looks like “r + n.”

I still love chopsticks, nonetheless… I’ll even edit the instructions with no fee…