Bread & Knives
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2011
1
22
33
Trip End
Ongoing
Izu, Shizuoka, Japan
Saturday, August 27, 2011
I forgot to tell you about something nice I "did" in Kyoto. So I'm going to combine it with this Entry.
Before coming to Japan I was already planning to buy a nice set of kitchen knives, as I believe they are very beautiful and I regard them as a piece of art for being handmade for many year and the art of making has been passed on for generations. And of course, because they're super sharp :-)
When I told people here, that I want to buy knives and have them "on display" in kitchen in my flat they thought I am weird (maybe I am...). But although Japanese have a long tradition of Hocho's (the knives), they don't have the same connection to knives as swiss people have for their swiss army knife.
My friend took me to a very well known knive shop in Kyoto, that is also selling the knives for the emperor's family. We tried already to buy a "set" in Tokyo, but as almost every knife has its special purpose I was not able to tell what I really want.
So a little better prepared we went to that shop in Kyoto. First, the owners thought I'm a chef ;-) haha, yes, me...pfff microwave chef at max. So why you wat these knives?! You might ask yourself. Well because I see them as a piece of art and because I hope to have more fun in the kitchen using the knives and maybe one day I'll be a better cook, or at least will have more fun in cooking. The shop of course had many many many (yes that many) different knives, with different handles, of different materials, in different qualities. Just for you to know...a long knive for a specific raw fish can be up to 6'000.-chf. So I had to choose carefully not to spend too much here. Of course you can also get knives for around 60.- chf.
I choose 5 different knives: 1 for red meet (e.g. juicy, big fat steaks...awww), 1 for "general purpose" or vegetables, a small one for fruits and vegetables, one for raw tuna (don't ask me which tuna..., for me it's just tuna), and another one for fish with which you can also cut the bones.
As I am planing to have them on display at home I wanted them all to have the same handle in the same colour, and the blade should look alike (I specially like the marmoring). And here's what japanese service means: Change of handles: included, engraving: included, rust removal gum (yes unfortunately they rust, there are also stainless ones though): included, packing & shipping to the company: included. Baaaam! I wonder how much extra that would have cost in swizzy. "Mol luege, si hän 4 Buechstabe im Name, das sind XX pro Buechstabe, mol 5 Mässer...etc." sigh...
Well, look at the pictures and see how nice the knives are :-)
About a month after having mostly the "general purpose" knive in use, I must say that I am a little disappointed on how quickly they rust and how quickly they need to be resharpened. But yes, when sharp, they're super sharp. First time I used the "gp" knife I cut a cucumber...only by placing the knife on top and let gravity do the cut. Amazing! But when cutting a lemon, a lime, or also tomatoes, the knife rusts within minutes :( so everytime I use it I need to de-rust it. Not what I expected. Probably they told my friend how quickly they rust, but she didn't translate that one. But they're still very fun to use.
Why I am combining this entry with the following is because of the sharpness or the multipurpose use of the knives.
I joined my boss and his wife for a nice sunday trip around izu hanto. We drove to a super special, almost secret (hard to find) bakery to have delicious bread. Yes you read it right. Delicious bread in japan :-) Look at the pictures, it's a very nice place. I bought a lot of different bread and planned on freezing it until my parents and my sister would come to visit me. Soon after coming back home, I realized that I don't even have a bread knife. The bread I had before, was either seat and didn't need a knife or was pre-cut. I decided to try the "gp" knife to cut the bread. And although it didn't have "teeth" the knife cut like butter (almost) through the bread. Very impressing!
Well that's about it, just looked for a possibility to share the "knive experience" with you :-)
Next up: Fuji Speedway!
Comments
Sugooooi!
I seriously love the shape of these knives and having some myself (i.e. I got one from a collegue here who bought it in JP because I forced him to :P ) I absolutely understand why you wanted them so badly.
the rust issue is quality-related, it's not a typical issue with JP knives.
funny anectode: when my collegue told a manager from Mitsubishi that he's going to get a knive for me, the mitsubishi guy was laughing and telling him "oh, well, whenever we ar ein Switzerland or Germany, we buy knives there"
... guess we can call that a JP/CH knive connection ... ;-)
more posts, more toys, more swords, more chicks pleeeease!