you can whip out fennel wisps so thin you can read through
them or slice through your prep work at a hundred onions
per hour. And I’ll be the first one to tell you that you’re
really, really cool. But for the rest of us, a mandoline makes
quick work of repetitive slicing and julienning tasks. At one
point in my life, I owned a fancy-pants $150 French model.
But you know what? It was heavy, bulky, and a pain in the
butt to clean. And, with its straight blade, it didn’t really do
a great job. The Benriner Mandoline Plus ($49.95), on the
other hand, features a sharp angled blade that cuts much
more efficiently than those awkward straight blades or
clumsy V-shaped cutters. Walk into the kitchen of any four-
star restaurant in the city, and I guarantee you’ll find at least
a couple Bennies (as they are affectionately called by line
cooks) occupying a prominent place.
Random trivia: “Benriner” means “Oh, how handy!” in
Japanese (despite the fact that the Japanglish on the box
front proclaims “Dry cut radishes also OK.”)
- Spider
A spider/skimmer accomplishes almost everything a slotted
spoon does, and better, at a fraction of the cost. It excels at
fishing dumplings, vegetables, or ravioli out of a pot of
boiling water. And its wire construction and relatively open
mesh creates less turbulence in the liquid than a standard
slotted spoon, making it much easier to fish out food.
As for the task it was designed for—dunking and stirring
foods for deep-frying—the only thing that even comes close
in terms of agility and control is a long pair of chopsticks,
and even Mr. Miyagi would have trouble picking up peas